I Spy
by The Anti-Stratigist
Summary: Sequel to Team Psych. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, therefore the enemy of my friend is my enemy. Naruto just never thought he'd have to look at Danzo that way.
1. Chapter 1

I Spy

Summary- Sequel to Team Psych. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, therefore the enemy of my friend is _my _enemy. Naruto just never thought he'd have to look at Danzo that way.

A/n This is more of a thank you than an A/n. I forgot to thank one very important person in my thank you's at the end of Team Psych and I feel just awful about it. So, Nex-thanarak, thank you so much for helping me with this. My story would have fallen completely flat without your help. So, thank you.

Chapter 1- Six Months

**One month after chunin exams**

Jiraiya, Shikamaru and Sakura had just gotten back from their mission to bring home Tsunade, and, thanks to a brilliant new jutsu Sakura was trying to create, they succeeded in convincing the female sanin to come home and be hokage. A fact they were all relieved by. Including Ibiki who was willing to try bringing the new hokage in on their little infiltration mission which had been going on for just under a month. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

"So... Let me see if I have this straight." Tsunade slowly said to the tense members of team psych, including their sensei, while Jiraiya backed her up, "You four took it upon yourselves to start an unsanctioned infiltration mission into the heart of Danzo's organization. Regardless of the fact that this action could, potentially, lead to civil war?"

The four team members shifted uncomfortably until Ibiki took it upon himself to answer, "Hai Hokage-sama, nut we didn't feel it was something that could wait. Naruto only had a brief window of opportunity to enter Danzo's organization without it being suspicious, and he would have a better chance of spreading whatever knowledge he gained if there was a team backing him. And we took every precaution we could think of to prevent civil war. Including putting into place ways for Naruto to appear to have gone rogue."

The Fifth quirked an eyebrow, "And you didn't tell my predecessor about this... why?"

This time it was Naruto who bravely spoke up, "That was my fault Hokage-sama. I don't trust the Third, particularly with this matter. He hasn't done anything about Danzo in years, and this wouldn't be the first time he let someone he cared about get away with murder. I thou-"

"Watch your tongue brat!", Jiraiya straightened in anger, "You cannot even begin to compare to sensei so you had better speak of him with more respect!"

"Stand down Jiraiya!" Tsunade barked, "I know it's never fun to hear bad things about a loved one, but Naruto is right. Sensei had a chance to take down Oro years ago, but he didn't because he couldn't bear the thought of killing someone he loved, and now look at the mess that snake has caused." She turned back to team psych, "I understand your reasoning, but if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I'll have you jailed. Got it?"

They all saluted and said in chorus, "Hai! Hokage-sama!"

The Godaime winced and waved them down, "Uug, I don't think I'll ever get used to that. Now Naruto tell me what you've got so far."

The blond boy nodded, "I'm still just scratching the surface of root , but from what I can see Danzo-" Naruto's voice went mute even as his mouth continued to try and form the words. When he realized his voice was silent he stopped, thought for a moment then turned to Tsunade, "Do you have a piece of paper I can use?"

The Fifth was confused but obligingly gave him what he had asked for. Naruto started writing as soon as he got the paper and as he wrote he spoke, "So sensei made me go to my fathers house a few.. um .. weeks ago..." Naruto winced and the pen on the paper slipped, before he pulled himself back together and started writing again, "But I didn't find much, aside from the hirashin that is." Everyone in the room straightened in surprise and interest, but the interest soon turned to concern as the Uzumaki dropped the pen and clutched his head in pain.

The Godaime immediately went over to Naruto and did a diagnostic jutsu, "I don't understand. You're acting like you're in a great deal of pain, but I can't find anything wrong with you."

"And you won't. I'm fine." Naruto said.

Then the blond boy handed the paper he'd been writing on over to Tsunade. She read through it once and allowed her eyes to widen, before she read it again out loud, "_I have a seal on my tongue. I can't talk of... _rot?"the Fifth paused and looked over at Naruto, "I assume you meant to say root there?"

The Uzumaki nodded, "That was my first wince."

The Godaime nodded and resumed reading, "_can write but when I think about it it hur-_" here the writing trailed off into a black slash on the paper. That was the end of the note. The blond woman looked over at Naruto and asked, "Can you nod or shake your head without it hurting?"

The blond boy shrugged, "I don't know, I've never tried."

"We're going to try it then." Tsunade said, "I'm going to ask you yes or no questions, if it starts to hurt too much to answer them then stop. Alright?" Naruto nodded and the Fifth continued, "Okay, Do you have a seal on your tongue that makes it impossible for you to say anything about root?" the Uzumaki nodded.

"Okay," the Hokage said, "Next question, you can write information about root but you can't think about what or, maybe, why your writing it without it hurting?" the blond boy thought for a minute then nodded. "Did answering those questions hurt?"

Naruto paused tilted his head from side to side and then tried to speak, "It's like writing, I can't think about it."

Tsunade looked thoughtful, "Good to know. Naruto please show Jiraiya your seal." Jiraiya stepped forward and the Uzumaki stuck his tongue out as far as it could go and showed the white-haired sanin the top of it.

"Remarkable." Jiraiya said, "It's beautifully complex. A true work of art."

The Fifth rolled her eyes, "Yes I'm sure it is Jiraiya, but keep in mind that that lovely seal is making it harder for one of my spies to give me vital information."

The white-haired sanin looked suitably chastised, "Sorry. I think I can figure out how to remove it, but it will take time. I'll also need to come up with a dummy seal so that Danzo won't find out."

"Make that a priority Jiraiya." the Godaime said then turned back to Naruto, "Now, what was that you were saying about the hirashin?"

The blond boy's face was blank in confusion before it brightened in comprehension, "Oh! Right, I found the full hirashin seal but you have to be a lightning elemental to use it. For me it's useless. Plus I can't tell Danzo I have it or he'll find a way to steal it from me and teach it to someone who _can _use it."

Tsunade shuddered at the thought of such a powerful jutsu falling into Danzo's hands, "Well it is a shame you can't use it. But, I want you to guard the secret of that seal with your life Naruto. No one must be allowed to find out about it."

Naruto nodded, and the sound of a throat clearing brought the attention of all back to the other three members of team psych. Especially Shikamaru, since he was the one that cleared his throat, "With your permission Hokage-sama, I'd like to study the hirashin seal and see if I can adjust it to work for a wind elemental."

The Fifth's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Do you think you have the skill to pull off such a thing?"

The Nara shrugged, "No clue, but I've been studying seals since I became a genin and for the last two months I've had the personal training of Ero-sennin in them. I still have a long way to go till mastery, but having the chance to study the hirashin would improve my skill even if I do fail in altering it."

The Godaime hmmed in thought before saying, "I will allow this, but you must swear that that jutsu will never be found because of you."

The shadow user nodded, "I so swear."

Tsunade smiled, "Good, Naruto, as soon as you can, turn the hirashin scroll over to Shikamaru for safe keeping."

"Hai." the blond boy said, as he pulled out a sealing scroll and tossed it to Shikamaru, "It's sealed in there."

"Now that that's settled," the Fifth said, "let's make sure every contingency is in place to keep Naruto safe." For the next several hours the six shinobi did just that.

.

.

A few days later Shikamaru's calm observation of the clouds was broken when Naruto groaned, "I don't know what to do. I've been with Danzo for almost a month now and haven't made any progress. He still doesn't trust me at all."

Sakura put a comforting hand over his, "Don't worry Ruto. We all knew earning his trust would take time. You just need to be patient."

The Uzumaki shook his head in frustration, "Time won't fix this! I'm not making any progress with Danzo because I still have ties outside of Root."

"O-oh." the Haruno stuttered, "So, you need to have a falling out with Shika and I to go deeper?"

"That's what it look like." the blond sighed, "Only I didn't realize this until today so I've been blowing off Danzo's attempts to pull me away from you, after all, I'm not about to give up my only link to sanity. How are we going to convince him that I hate you when there is nothing that can be used to create tension between us?"

The Nara's eyes tracked a particularly interesting cloud as he thought over his friends conundrum. This unofficial mission of theirs was just plain irritating more often than not. He glanced over at Naruto and blinked as an idea wormed its way into his thoughts. It would be effective, if he could do it without getting himself hung. Still, he thought it might be worth the risk. With a grunt the shadow user sat up and stretched, "I'll think this over and see if I can't come up with something. In the mean time, just keep trying with Danzo."

Naruto gave a nod, "Alright Shika. And speaking of Danzo, Id better get back. If I'm seen talking to you for too long he might start trusting me even less." with that the blond got up and walked away with Sakura heading off soon after.

Shikamaru let himself lay down again, but while his eyes were focused on the clouds his mind was far away on figuring out how to work his plan. It would be a few days before he cloud implement it without it being suspicious, but in the end he knew it would work. Problem solved, he went back to his clouds, he might as well enjoy them while he had the time.

Two days later the bell above the Yamanaka flower shop door tinkled as Shikamaru walked in and headed straight for the mourning flowers and started looking them over. Ino, who had been watching her long time friend came over to him in confusion, "You know Shika, no of these will send the best message to a girl."

The Nara glared at the blond, "These aren't for a girl. I just found out its the anniversary of Naruto's dads death. I thought I'd get him a flower for sympathy."

The girl quirked an eyebrow, "October 13? Wow what lousy day to have a parent die. A lot of people lost parents today so there's not much sym- wait, did you say _Naruto's _dad? You know who he is?"

The shadow user shrugged, "Yeah and so do you, it's the Fourth."

Ino froze in shock and then burst out laughing, "You really had me going there for a minute. Nice job Shika. So, who are the flowers really for? And by the way I'd go with roses or lilacs for this mystery girl you're trying so hard to hide from me."

Shikamaru growled, "I already told you these aren't for a girl they're for Naruto to put on his father's grave. Now which flower sends a stronger message of sympathy, the carnation or the gladioli?"

"For sympathy I'd go with the white stargazer lily, but if you want to express grief then the chrysanthemum is best." the blond said absentmindedly then continued, "You're serious aren't you? You really do think that blond loudmouth is the son of our greatest Kage."

The Nara shook his head, "I don't think, I know. I was the first person Naruto told when he found out and now I want to do something to help him through his grief."

The girl quirked a brow, "Even if you are telling the truth, it seems like Naruto would have grieved over the loss of his parents a long time ago."

"The nameless, faceless, idea of parents maybe, but it's hard to grieve for the loss of people you don't know. Now that he knows who his father was, it's like an old scar has been ripped open and is bleeding again. I just want to help my friend get through this." the shadow user said.

"I don't believe this." the Yamanaka whispered, "You do honestly think that Naruto is the Fourth's son. But why? There aren't two more dissimilar people in this village."

Shikamaru snorted, "Oh aren't there? Naruto has already come up with his first original jutsu, and I'm not talking about that idiotic sexy jutsu; but a real, impressive jutsu that I'm willing to do work to learn. He made this jutsu at thirteen, a full two years before the Fourth invented his rasengan. And have you looked at a picture of either of them lately? Their hair and eye color are the exact. Same. Shade. Only genetics can explain that. So yeah I know Naruto is the Yondaime's son. If you don't believe me then go ask our Hokage Tsunade-sama and watch as she tries to deny it but fails. But before you do I'll take a white stargazer lily."

Ino just stared blankly at her long time friend as this knew knowledge was sinking in. Shikamaru used logic to explain this. He only used logic when it was right. Holy crap, Naruto was practically royalty! Oh she couldn't wait to spread this about, but she was brought out of her gossiping plans by Shika asking how much the lily would be, "It's, um, on the house today, and- give my sympathies to Naruto as well." Ino said in a dazed voice. The Nara nodded and walked out of the shop, with the blond waiting until he was out of sight before she rushed out. Oh she couldn't wait to tell someone. This was huge!

Shikamaru watched as Ino scrambled out of the shop with a manic look in her eye and smirked. Objective one complete. Then he headed over to Naruto's apartment and left the flower on the door with a note that read-

'_I know this won't make much of a difference with how you feel about your dad, especially on today of all days, but I thought you'd like to know. Your mom's name was Uzumaki Kushina, she died today as well. Kind of a lousy birthday with it being the anniversary of both your parents death's, but I thought that knowing her name might make you feel better. Happy Birthday, and I'm sorry for the loss of your mother.'_

_._

_._

Naruto hated his birthday. He hated it with a passion, but this one seemed to be worse than normal. Usually he'd just get thrown out of stores that would normally let him in, and would probably get a few more hateful glares. But this year was different. Several shop keepers had actually come out of their stores and _invited _him to come and shop there, on his birthday, in public. One had even offered him free stuff!

After heading out of that mainly disturbing situation he ran into one of Sasuke's fangirls and she hit _on_ him instead of just plain hitting him. He shuddered just thinking about that encounter. At the time he hadn't known whether to be confused or horrified. Looking back, he was definitely going for horrified.

He just hoped nothing else weird happened before he could get back to his apartment and hide. It wasn't long after having that thought that Ino marched up to him dragging Sakura behind her, "Naruto! Will you tell forehead that you're the son of the Fourth already. She refuses to believe me and it's really starting to get old."

The blond felt himself go cold in shock, how did Ino know? He thought fast, he needed to convince the Yamanaka that she was mistaken before it span out of control, "Huh? What are you talking about Ino?"

The blond girl rolled her eyes, "Don't even try the whole clueless thing baka, I know its true. Shikamaru told me he found out about your heritage from you, and you can't get much closer to a source than that."

Naruto paled. He couldn't believe it. Surely Shika wouldn't- His parentage was his greatest secret. Shikamaru wouldn't tell a soul, but Ino knew. And as he thought about the strange way many of the villagers were acting he felt his stomach sink with the horrible realization that Ino was probably not the only one to know. She was above all else a gossip, and he had a feeling her tongue had been waging for awhile. He felt ill... betrayed..._angry._ With a growl he took off, Shikamaru was gonna pay!

In his anger he didn't notice his other teammate trailing after him.

.

.

The Nara was wandering the streets waiting for the other shoe to drop when he heard a voice shout, "SHIKAMARU!" He turned just in time to get a fist to his face that sent him flying backwards. As soon as his head stopped spinning he looked up while wiping the blood away from his split lip. In front of him was a seething Naruto. Crushing the small tremor of fear he thought to himself, 'Objective two complete.' Then started to pull himself to his feet, "What was that for?"

The blond was slowly clenching and unclenching his fists in a bid for control as he said, "What was that for! How about for telling the town gossip the secret that I only trusted you with?"

Sakura unwisely chose this moment to cut in, "Wait so you really are the Fourth's son? Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were past all this keeping secrets stuff!"

"Stay out of this Sakura!" Naruto shouted then ignored the hurt look that appeared in her eyes as he turned back to the shadow user, "Do you have any idea what you've done? I've been trying for thirteen years to get out of the Kyuubi's shadow so that the villagers would see _me. _But thanks to you I now have to pull myself out of the Shadow of the Fourth as well. Now when people treat me well I won't know whether they've finally managed to see past the Kyuubi or whether they're just seeing the Fourth's scion!"

Shikamaru shrugged, "It was going to come out eventually. I figured I'd just let it slip now while it will still help you tame the angry villagers."

"The last thing I want is for the villagers to like me because of a man I hate!" the blond shouted.

The Nara gave the Uzumaki a confused look, "You know you should really cool it. This is a good thing and even if you don't like it the cat's already out of the bag. Besides, It's not like it's a big deal. If anything I've done you a favor."

Naruto gave a shout of rage as he lunged at the shadow user, "I'm gonna kill you!" Shikamaru wisely dodged and took off running, with a murderous jinchuuriki right behind him.

"Wait!" Sakura shouted as she watched her two teammate's take off. With a silent curse she took off after them. She just hoped she could keep her friends from ripping each other apart.

By the time the Haruno caught up to them they were in a clearing outside of Konoha with a growling Naruto caught in Shikamaru's shadow bind. She let out a breath of relief that they weren't fighting yet. But the relief was soon replaced with confusion when the Nara started to talk, "If you'll calm down Naruto I'll tell you why I did what I did."

The blond forced himself to be calmer but he was still shooting a murderous glare at the shadow user, "I'm listening."

Shikamaru sat down on the ground, forcing Naruto to follow as he said, "Remember two days ago when you said Danzo didn't trust you because of us? And that you needed to find a way to make it look like we hated each other?" he paused and waited until the blond nodded before continuing, "Well this is my solution. Now you clearly hate me because I betrayed your trust, and you publicly claimed that you were gonna kill me. Sakura can say _she _hates_ you _because you never trusted her enough to tell her who your parents were and when she confronted you about it you bit her head off. All in All, it looks like we hate each other, and now Danzo has no reason not to trust _you._"

The Uzumaki's glare had lost most of it's force, but his eyes were still narrowed, "Alright, I understand your plan, and it's a good plan really, but couldn't you have at least warned me?"

"No." the Nara said, "You better than anyone should know the importance of real emotion. You had to be taken completely off guard or you might not have been convincing enough, and that could have thrown our whole mission into danger. If Danzo thought we were trying to stage a team shattering he would be even more suspicious than before. That's why both you and Sakura couldn't know, it put the mission in too much danger of failing."

Naruto stared at the shadow user for a bit loner before relaxing with a sigh, "You are lucky that I'm in the process of learning how to forgive betrayals, otherwise this really _would_ have been a team shattering."

"So you don't hate me?" Shikamaru asked.

"Hate you? No." the blond said, "But I'm still royally ticked, and don't expect me to trust you with any more personal secrets for awhile. But, well, I still trust you with shinobi secrets. You are my teammate after all, and besides, you care too much about your own neck to risk it by having a loose tongue."

The Nara sighed in relief as he thought, 'Objective three complete. Mission complete.' Then he let the shadow bind fall. Only to feel a punch in the face.

Naruto gave a sigh of relief, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself, but don't worry, I won't attack you again. I just needed to blow off some steam. Sakura, you should probably take a look at his face, I wasn't holding back in either of my punches."

The Haruno rolled her eyes as she headed over to Shikamaru and let her hand get coated in green chakra, "I know I can't really judge you for hitting someone to blow off steam, but I thought I was supposed to be the violent one."

The blond grinned, "Don't worry. You still are, but that doesn't mean we can't sometimes take a meander through your territory. I'm gonna head home. This has been a really weird day and an even weirder birthday. I'm gonna go relax, but I'll send you more info soon." With that Naruto took off leaving Sakura to heal the cracked jaw and massive bruising.

.

.

Naruto was staring at his front door,or rather the flower attached to it. He knew it was from Shika they had all long ago memorized the others hand writing so they wouldn't be easily fooled by an imposter. So now, in spite of the lack of signature, he knew who this gift was from. If anything it told him that Shikamaru had meant what he said about it only being a ruse. In a way this note was even an apology. After all he did tell him who his mother was, a piece of information he had lost the clearance to search for after joining Danzo. He felt a small smile come to his face, he was still ticked, but he was learning how to forgive and, if he forgave Shika now it would be easier. So with that goal in mind he headed into his apartment

.

.

**Four months later**

Hinata was steaming. As they ate her father was discussing wether or not they should even try to find another jyuuken instructor for her to see if they could move her beyond the level of hopeless. They spoke of her as if she wasn't even here, or too stupid to understand them. Six months ago she would have taken everything they said to heart, and would have let it beat her down until she lost all her confidence. But that was before she had become friends with Sakura, who taught her that even with her speech impediment her words and ideas were valued. That was before she saw Naruto break and learned that even those who seem strong can be weak.

She had once looked up to her father and thought that he could do no wrong and say no wrong. But she'd learned the danger of putting all her faith in herself on the opinion of one person. Sakura thought she was smart and capable. Everyone in her year thought she was strong. She had come to realize how good she was at jyuuken, to be able to create her own original technique for it at such a young age. The only people who still saw her as the weak _child _she had been, were the people who should have been the most willing to help her grow, and she was getting tired of taking their crap.

"I think it's time to face the fact that she'll never amount to much as a ninja." the elder said, ""It's fortunate she's at least pretty enough to be bartered for some political strength through an arranged marriage. Perhaps to the lord of the pine county. He's fairly connected."

Hinata's anger froze in it's tracks. The lord of pine country had already had two wives both of which had died under less than innocent circumstances, it was only because of his connections that those two deaths were not openly questioned. Surely her father didn't think so little of her as to pawn her off onto such a monster.

Haishi sat in thought for a moment before nodding, "It would be an advantageous match. Perhaps you would like to be in charge of the arrangements. Hinata is fourteen and-"

Something inside Hinata snapped "NO!" she shouted as she shot to her feet, "I www-will not lettt you mm-ma- marry mme t-to tt-to th-that Monster!" She was out of breath by the time she finished speaking.

The Hyuuga head looked up at his daughter with distain, "Sit down before you humiliate yourself with your lack of knowledge."

"Nnn-no." Hinata said again, "I am tt-tired of y-you t-tt-treat-t-ing me likkke a fffool. I-if yyy-you ww-will nnnot not lissten tto mme I-I wwill ch-ch-ch-challlenge y-you f-for f-for the tttttitle of ccclan head!" her heavy breaths were the only thing that could be heard in the dining room as everyone stared at her in shock.

"I will give you one chance to apologize for your thoughtless words and sit down without any repercussions. I suggest you take it." the Hyuuga head said quietly.

The girl shook her head, "I ww-will not. If y-you will nnnot mmeet my ch-ch-challenge I w-will tt-take this t-to th-the Hokkkage."

Hiashi stood, "I will meet your challenge right now, and when I defeat you, you will marry the lord of pine county without any further argument."

He stood and walked out to the main family's private training ground followed by a fearless Hinata and the rest of the group that had been eating at the table. When they got to the training grounds the clan head turned to his daughter and said, "Watch closely Hinata, I will give you a chance to see what a true ninja looks like before I forever remove you from that profession."

Hinata gave a small smile, "All sh-should www-watch mmme closssely as I ppp-prove I am nnnot w-weak."

The elder who had started all this took it upon himself to be referee, and told the two to prepare themselves. The two combatants activated their Byakugan and the elder stated the rules, "The rules for a battle for the title of clan head are simple. You are only allowed to use Jyuuken. Meaning you can only use pure chakra to attack and defend, no jutsu, including genjutsu. No hard hitting taijutsu either. Use any illegal techniques and you will automatically forfeit and release yourself into the mercy of the clan head. The rules have been stated, begin.

As soon as the match started Hiashi rushed forward palm raised and already glowing with chakra ready to destroy this upstart.

Hinata calmly watched him come and didn't move a muscle. When her father was half way across the arena, her hand twitched, and Hiashi stumbled, then fell. The clan head started to raise himself up with his arms, but again Hinata's hand twitched and Hiashi's arms collapsed pulling him back down with them. With a final twitch of her hand the clan head was out like a light.

For a moment no one moved, then cries of outrage and accusations of fowl play started to fill the air. It was Hinata's grandfather that silenced the cries, "Look at the tenketsu of my sons arms and legs. They're closed. I don't know how but somehow my granddaughter did defeat Hiashi."

They all looked in shock at the proof before them as Hinata's instructor looked over at her in distress, "But how? I trained you, I know you can't do that."

The new clan head gave a delicate snort, "You do not train me. You gave me something to learn and then went off to do your own thing while I floundered. You didn't even ever bother to check on my progress. You just assumed I couldn't do it and therefore teaching me was a waste of your time. Then you'd go and tell father that I wasn't progressing. No wonder he thought I was worthless. Although to be fair, I did try to tell father what you were doing once, he didn't believe me. As for how I defeated my father, I found a way to close the tenketsu from a distance. Let's leave my explanation at that."

Hinata turned to her grandfather, "I would be honored if you would train me in how to be clan head grandfather."

The man smiled, "No, _I _would be the honored one, and I think you're going to fill the role of clan head well."

_._

_._

**One month later**

Naruto lovingly brushed the snow away from the stone in front of him, and then carefully traced the words written there,

_Uzumaki Kushina _

_ Konoha's Red Flame _

_ You are missed_

Then the blond placed the bouquet of flowers he had in the pot on the tombstone and whispered, "Hey mom. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to find you. In all the drama surrounding finding out who my father was, and then the craziness of the last six months, I guess I just let you slip my mind. That won't happen again, I promise."

With that he turned away and headed toward another part of the grave yard. When Naruto reached this tombstone he didn't brush away any leaves, not that there were any, or place flowers in their vase. This grave was overflowing with flowers and he didn't really feel like his would be appropriate. So, he just flopped onto the ground and the only thing that saved that gesture from being completely disrespectful was the innate shinobi grace Danzo had beat into him.

The blonds voice had a hard edge to it as he spoke to this grave, "Father. I don't really want to be here speaking to you, but Sakura once told me that she thought this would help me work through my feelings, since I couldn't talk to you face to face. So here it goes. I hate you. I can't even begin to fathom what would cause you, my father, to turn me into a monster. I know there are other ways that you could have stopped the Kyuubi, ways that didn't include you sealing that beast into a helpless infant. But you didn't choose one of those ways and I don't really care why."

"I hate you and I don't think that's ever going to change. In the last six months I've made a lot of progress. I'm working through my issues with jiji, not that he knows because I can't really reconcile with him right now. I'm already over my issues with Iruka-sensei, not that I can show him either. Heck, I'm even on good terms with Ibiki-sensei and he had me tortured for a week. But you, I just can't forgive you. I don't think I ever can."

With that Naruto stood and walked out of the cemetery. Leaving with nothing but a black mood.

The walk through the village did little to brighten the blonds outlook. There were some civilians kowtowing to him, calling him "Naruto-sama." and offering free wares. Then there were others who were more hateful toward him than ever. He saw Shikamaru and walked by him with a disgusted sneer while the Nara looked on blandly. Naruto knew why Shika had spilled his lineage, but it still ticked him off with how much it was affecting his life.

Even five months later Naruto still felt flashes of anger at Shika. Things had just been so much easier for him in the village before everyone found out who he was. But he couldn't deny the results, just two weeks after his, "falling out" with his friends, Danzo had started trusting him with more information. Now five months later he was quickly moving his way up to being privy to everything.

His inability to contact his friends had lead to another, unforeseen problem though. He couldn't easily get new information to them. But after a month of scrambling, Sakura had come up with an excellent solution.

"Uzumaki-san." Naruto glanced up when his name was called and saw the root who guarded the entrance into headquarters.

The blond nodded to him, "Seven. Paradise is found in strange places."

"And yet harmony is not found at all." Seven replied as he opened the door.

The Uzumaki grinned, "Thank you."

.

.

"These new interrogation ideas you have are very good Ino." Sai said

The Yamanaka grinned as she draped her arms around her boyfriend from behind, "I'm glad you admire my ideas, but isn't there something else in the room you'd rather admire?"

Naruto, who was watching this scene from a shadowed doorway snorted, that wasn't at all forward. The blond was abruptly yanked from the study of his handler by the quiet voice of his sensei, "Disgusting aren't they? Out of all the emotional triggers in the world the hardest to train root away from are simple teenage hormones. Remember that Naruto it may save your authority one day."

"H-hai sensei. I've been looking for you." the blond replied.

Danzo nodded, "Yes, seven told me you were in HQ. Four is waiting to give you your next lesson in emotional manipulation. You should-" the cripple was interrupted by a high pitched giggle from Ino and he glanced over at the odd couple with a scowl, "Your little blond protege isn't working out Naruto. Her constant flirtations are ruining one of my most promising subordinates. Get her in line before I'm forced to do it myself."

The Uzumaki glanced over at Ino with an expression that only betrayed a flicker of concern before turning back to the councilman, "Yes sensei. Don't worry, I'll ensure that this doesn't happen again."

The cripple smiled, "Good, I'll leave you to your leadership exercise then. Four is waiting for you on level two when you're done." the blond nodded and watched as Danzo walked away before stepping out of the shadow of the doorway and clearing his throat. Ino and Sai both jumped up and away from each other as Naruto started to speak in an empty voice, "I see you two are wasting time again. Danzo-sama is not pleased with your propensity to ignore your duties while in one another's company. You should learn control, before control is forced upon you."

The two root grunts paled at the threat and apologized, but the blond boy carelessly waved their apologies away, "Words are meaningless. If you are truly sorrowful then show it by acting with control. Sai you are dismissed to your other duties. Ino, I have something further to speak to you about."

Sai gave a salute and hurried out while both Naruto and Ino waited until the boy was gone before turning to each other. The Yamanaka let out a laugh, "Wow Naruto, you've really been getting better at your acting. I almost believed your 'you will suffer if you do not comply' face."

The boy sighed and shook his head, "Remember where we are Ino, and I wish you had believed it a little more. Danzo's been noticing you, and not in a good way. He thinks you're ruining Sai, and he's told me if I don't get you under control, he will."

Ino paled, "B-but I'm your pet project."

"Yes," the Uzumaki said, "and as long as I can keep you under control Danzo's willing to let you _stay _my pet project. But you are basically my first lesson in leadership and as soon as I show myself to have failed, Danzo will take over. I need you as _my _subordinate, not another of Danzo's retrained emotionless drones. So please, for the next few months at least, keep your nose clean and suspend your emotion lessons with Sai. Understood?"

The girl nodded submissively and Naruto continued, "Good. Now to make sure you don't forget this lesson I'm going to assign you to run one lap around Konoha, _all _of Konoha. I'll see you again in a few hours to report your progress on learning this lesson. Dismissed."

The Yamanaka saluted and as she passed Naruto their hands brushed and something passed between them. Then Ino was off to do her assignment."

.

.

Shikamaru looked up from the cipher Ibiki had him working on as Ino came in and plopped down in a chair and said, "I have a new message from Naruto, and this time I'm supposed to be running a lap around Konoha, so I have a few hours before I need to leave to go make myself look sweaty and tired. So, you ready to start in?"

The Nara nodded and pushed the cipher to the side as the girl handed him part of Ruto's coded message. He hated the seal that had forced Naruto to use this barely understandable code. Shikamaru glanced down at the message and quirked an eyebrow,"Fluffy bunnies?" he asked in confusion.

"Hmm?" Ino said without looking up from her own portion of Naruto's coded message.

The Nara sighed, "This stanza it start's with the words 'fluffy bunnies' what is that supposed to mean? That Danzo's cute and cuddly?"

The Yamanaka snorted as she put down her portion of the riddle, "Not likely. Here let me see." the blond grabbed the paper out of the shadow users hand and read the stanza aloud, "'_Fluffy bunnies beneath full moon eyes. A broken soul can break a puppet masters hold.' _Yuck. Naruto should never write poetry."

"At least not when he's trying to encode messages into it." Shikamaru said, "So what does that stanza mean?"

Ino studied the stanza carefully as she tried to remember everything she knew about root. Finally her face brightened, "I know! One of the members of roots alpha squad wears fluffy bunny slippers. I don't know why, she could probably go around with scratchy cloth strapped round her feet and I doubt she'd notice."

"Right," Shikamaru said in disinterest, "So fluffy bunnies is dealing with this member of alpha squad. 'Full moon eyes' meaning the type of eye someone has maybe."

"Could be." the blond girl said, "But the only people I know in Konoha that have 'full moon eyes' are the Hyuuga, and I doubt they'd let one of their family join root."

The Nara glanced over at Ino, "There are other ways to get someone into root. The death of a branch member on a mission probably wouldn't be too heavily investigated, if it was investigated at all."

The Yamanaka nodded, "True, and I bet this line here has to do with the brainwashing Danzo does."

The shadow user smirked, "And the line about breaking the puppet masters hold. If a Hyuuga was kidnapped and brainwashed, regardless of weather they were main or branch, the Hyuuga clan would remove all political and financial support from Danzo."

Ino grinned, "We're gonna have that scumbag cornered before in no time."

"Yep." Shikamaru said, "I'm glad Naruto was able to make sure you were only given the dummy seal though, otherwise he couldn't be nearly as cryptic in his messages."

The blond nodded, "Yeah me to. That root seal looks like no fun. If I had had to get that to join this mission I would have flat out refused."

"Understandable." the Nara said, "Still I wish we could put that lack of seal to better use, and just have Naruto tell you all this information so that you could just relay it back to us."

The Yamanaka sighed, "Me too, but you know why he can't. The seal works by way of the mind and root matters can only be discussed with other root. The other root _think _they're talking to another root when their talking to me so their seal doesn't interfere. But Ruto _knows _he's talking to a spy when he's talking to me and therefore his seal stops him from discussing things freely."

The shadow user waved a hand negligently, "Yeah, yeah I know. It doesn't mean I can't wish though. I can't wait until Ero-sensei is done retooling that seal."

"Oh yeah, I heard that Jiraiya-sama was teaching you advanced sealing by mail. How's that going?" Ino asked.

Shikamaru sighed, "Alright I guess, learning anything by mail is challenging, but with seals... I'm just glad sensei usually comes back to Konoha once a month to report to Hokage-sama and check my progress or I'd be sunk."

The Yamanaka nodded in sympathy then glanced at the clock and gasped, "I've got to go. I just barely have enough time to make it look like I actually did go for a run before I need to get back to HQ. See ya later Shika!" she called as she sprinted out the door.

The Nara smiled after his long time friend before gathering up the translated message from Ruto and heading off to the tower. No doubt Hokage-sama would want this update.

.

.

As Ino sprinted through the streets of Konoha trying to work up a believable sweat she thought of how she had come to be a part of team psych's mission. She never thought that just looking into why team psych, who were supposed to hate each other at this point, were passing messages to each other would lead her into this new mission she was doing for her home. Sometimes she hated that she had gotten embroiled into these shadow games. But most of the time she was glad. Not only was she growing quickly under the harsh training of root, but if she had never taken this path then she would have never met Sai. And that-

The Yamanaka was abruptly yanked out of her thoughts as she ran headlong into someone and they both fell to the ground with a grunt. She looked up to see who she had run into and her eyes widened, "Oh I'm so sorry Hinata. Are you all right?"

Hinata looked up with a smile, "I-I'm ff-fine Innno. Y-you?"

The blond girl laughed, "Oh it would take more than a tumble into the street to hurt me. I bet it would take more than that for you too. Miss Hyuuga clan head."

The black-haired girl blushed crimson, "I-it was nnnn-nothing."

The Yamanaka wanted to continue her teasing but she could see how embarrassed her friend was so she let the matter drop, "If you say so. Hey, I'm late for a meeting with my sensei, so I really need to go, but we should grab lunch together sometime."

The Hyuuga nodded, "Y-yes. T-th-that would bbb-be nice."

Ino grinned then waved as she once again took off running. It was amazing to think about how much Hinata had changed in the past few months. She still stuttered of course but she refused to let herself be ashamed of that now. Ino remembered the first time she'd heard the story about how Hinata got her new position, she was ashamed to admit that she hadn't believed them. But it didn't take long for everyone to accept that the girl had earned her title. Poor Hinata had been hard at work playing catch up on how to be the leader of a clan ever since, but she was getting better everyday.

The Yamanaka stopped to catch her breath as she leaned against the side of the entrance of root HQ. Once she had caught her breath she knocked on the door. She was ready to face the lions den again.

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.

Sakura felt a bead of sweat drip uncomfortably down her face but she tried her best to ignore it as she kept her focus on the floundering fish before her as her hands hovered above it while glowing a soft green. This was her twentieth time doing this exercise, but this time she would succeed before the fish died. She was _so _tired of fish fillets. With a small intake of breath she steadied her chakra and sent it into the fish to coat the two parts of the torn artery next to its heart, and had her chakra gently bring the two ends back together. She exhaled and split the chakra around the artery into two separate forms. One remained as the wall while the other thinned and lengthened into thread.

She felt another bead of sweat follow the trail of the first as she split her focus between maintaining the wall, and using the rest of her focus to carefully guide the thread to sew the two torn ends together in the way Tsunade-sensei had taught her. As soon as the artery was sewn back together she slowly hardened the thread to a more hardy consistency and then carefully withdrew her chakra support from the chakra thread. She held her breath as she waited to see if this thread would hold together or dissolve back into chakra as the last few had.

After several seconds with the thread staying the way it should she let her breath out in a gust of relief, and put the still alive fish back into the pond.

Then she grinned and took off, she had to tell sensei!

.

.

Tsunade was eyeing the paperwork before her with distaste as she tried to decide if it would be worth it to just torch this stack and say it was an accident when her younger student came bouncing into the room, "Sensei! I did it! I managed to save the fish using my new jutsu!"

The Fifth smiled, "Well done Sakura. If you had told me six months ago that you could turn chakra energy into solid matter and have it stay that way after the source was removed, I would have laughed and said impossible."

"You did laugh and say it was impossible sensei. Proving you wrong was how we got you to come back to Konoha." the Haruno deadpanned.

The Godaime laughed, "True enough. I still had my doubts about whether your jutsu could be used for healing though. I'm glad to know I was wrong, and I'm proud of you."

The girl blushed the color of her hair, "Thank you sensei. But all those people who said I had perfect control in the academy had no idea what they were talking about. _Now _I have perfect control. But a year ago there is no way I could have split my chakra and had the two ends doing entirely different things at the same time."

"Perhaps." Tsunade said, "But I think you sell yourself short. Now, I think you deserve to have the rest of today off. You've been working really hard on the fish, and you need a break. So, no chakra use for the rest of today, and no study either. Go catch up with friends or something."

Sakura smiled, "Hai sensei." with that she was off again bouncing through the halls in the afterglow of her success.

The Fifth was happy as she watched her student go. She had no doubt that that girl would surpass her, and she'd probably do it in no time at all. Then her eyes took in the massive amount of paperwork in front of her and she sighed. She pictured orange flames licking around the edges of the stacks and slowly blackening them until they turned into dust, and smiled. Why couldn't she have picked up smoking from her sensei?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- The Serpent Rears

Tsunade grumbled as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "What was so important that I had to come here at three in the morning Jiraiya?"

The white haired sanin just looked at her, "You... haven't noticed the madly giggling Uchiha behind the observation window?"

The Fifth frowned, "Of course I see him. What I want to know is why I've been pulled out of bed to be told that a crazy person is acting insane."

It was at this point that Inoichi stepped in, "Sasuke is psychopathic not psychotic."

The Godaime glared at the jonin, "I'm still half asleep and psychiatric medicine has never been my strong point. Please say that in a less complicated way."

The jonin sighed, "Ok. As a psychopath Sasuke in incapable of feeling guilt which can make it hard to function normally with others. On the other hand, someone who suffers from a psychosis doesn't even know what the real world is. One generally does not lead to the other."

Tsunade nodded and covered a yawn, "So basically Sasuke should not be acting like this?"

The Yamanaka shook his head, "No, definitely not."

The Fifth sighed, "Then what's caused this change in his mental stability?"

"It looks like the curse seal is breaking down, and that's causing this shift into psychosis." the jonin said.

Jiraiya chose this moment to speak, "You'd think the curse seal breaking down would be a good thing but in this case it's not. It isn't _dissolving _so much as losing its ability to function properly."

"Unfortunate. Is there anything that can be done?" the Godaime asked.

The white-haired sanin nodded, "Possibly. You know we picked up Sasuke when he tried to leave town."

Tsunade quirked and eyebrow, "No Jiraiya, you forgot to mention that. Next time I ask why I've been summoned at three in the morning maybe you could start with, 'the last scion of a bloodline clan tried to skip town last night,' instead of, 'the last scion of a bloodline clan is acting crazier than usual.' Which one do _you _think I'd be more willing to give up my bed for."

Jiraiya scratched the back of his head, "Hehe oops sorry Tsu. Um anyway, apparently he was contacted by Orochimaru a few days ago, and he was promised a second more powerful level to his seal would be unlocked if he would leave Konoha and join him. We're not sure, but we think that this next level might re-stabilize the seal."

"I'm not sure I like where your going with this." the Fifth said.

The white-haired sanin didn't try to deny his old teammate's concern, "No, I imagine you won't. I think we should send Naruto in disguised as Sasuke to find out how to upgrade the seal."

The Godaime closed her eyes in thought before glancing over at her friend, "You do realize what you're asking me to do don't you? You're asking me to chose between one of my most promising new ninja and a child who has already proven to be insane. I may think Naruto's a bit of a brat, but he still has a lot of potential that I'm not sure I'm willing to throw into Oro's path."

"He does have a lot of potential," Jiraiya said, "and I don't really like this idea either. Goodness knows I'd rather keep my godson out of danger, but I don't see that we have much of a choice. Sasuke's only had this curse seal for six months and it's already causing him to have mental breakdowns. Who knows how much longer it will be before it turns him into a vegetable. I certainly don't want to stick my neck out for Sasuke, and I don't want Naruto to have to either; but he is the last semi-loyal Uchiha, or at least the last controllable one. If we let him die we lose the Sharingan forever, and like it or not, the Sharingan has been a good tool for our village. I think that makes the risk worth it. No matter how slim the chances are that this will work."

Tsunade looked at Sasuke for a little longer then turned to Inoichi, "Go find Naruto. Tell him to come to my office as soon as possible." Inoichi saluted and vanished in a shushin. And the Hokage looked back at the mad boy in the cell, "I guess I get to draw some blood."

An hour later the Fifth was looking out over Konoha and wondering if she had made the right choice when there was a knock on her door and Naruto entered, "You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?"

The Godaime turned around, "Yes, come in and sit down Naruto." after he had complied she continued, "I have a mission for you that you're probably not going to like." Tsunade took out the vile of Sasuke's blood and placed it on her desk, "I need you to transform into Sasuke, infiltrate Orochimaru's organization, find an upgrade for the curse seal and bring it back here."

"I have to become _him_?" the boy asked in distaste.

The Fifth nodded, "I'm afraid so. I know it really isn't a pleasant assignment but you're the only one that can do it."

The Uzumaki nodded, "If it will help Konoha, but you know Danzo's gonna ask why I was called in here. What should I tell him?"

"The truth." the Godaime said immediately, "Once he gives you his orders come back here and tell me what they are and I'll decide whether you should pretend to fail them or not. It would be nice to know what that old windbag would do with an opportunity like this."

Naruto nodded, "And when do you want me to leave?"

"In the morning." Tsunade said as she pulled out a map, "There's a group of sound ninja waiting to meet Sasuke at this location. You will leave to meet with them after a final briefing with me."

The boy saluted, "Hai Hokage-sama. I had better go get ready then." with that he hurried from the room.

Early the next day both Naruto and Tsunade were back in her office, "What did Danzo want you to do?" she asked.

"He wanted me to go all the way to sound village and assassinate Orochimaru. He's sending root's alpha squad to assist." the boy said.

The blond Hokage put her mouth into her hands in thought then nodded, "I will allow you to try carrying out that mission, but if you get in over your head retreat. I don't want to lose you just yet."

The Uzumaki smiled, "Hai Hokage-sama. Is there anything else you want me to know?"

"Just this," the Fifth said, "I will be sending a squad of genin after you to retrieve 'Sasuke'. I doubt they'll be a problem, especially since they'll have orders not to risk their lives for a civilian traitor, but I need it to look like I'm doing something for Orochimaru's sake. Don't engage them if you can help it, but be aware that they will be there. Here's the blood, and you may start your mission when ready.

The boy nodded took the vile and exited.

.

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Naruto met up with root's team alpha outside the village, "The Hokage is going to have a team of genin try and catch Sasuke and bring him home. Stay out of their sight if you can help it."

"Hai Uzumaki-sama." the four root ANBU said. Naruto nodded and pulled out the vile. With a sigh he tilted his head back and let the smallest drop of blood touch his tongue while he surged his chakra. In a poof of smoke Uzumaki Naruto vanished and in his place was the cold form of Uchiha Sasuke.

"Uzumaki-sama," one of the ANBU said and continued when he turned towards him, "You don't have the curse seal."

Sasuke blinked and made a clone then staggered slightly, whoa Sasuke had a lot of chakra, but not enough for that technique. The clone looked at the shoulder where the seal should be the lets itself disperse. The now black-haired boy took in the clones memories and frowned, "That's unexpected. I'll have to make sure no one tries to look at it. Let's go." He took off with his entourage of hidden root behind him, but even as he ran he felt that there was something wrong.

During his other transformations, he had always still kept his same mind and emotions, or at least he thought he had. But now as he ran in Sasuke's body he could feel his emotions deadening. All except for one all consuming need, revenge. He really didn't like the way this felt, and just hoped he wouldn't end up with the psychotic tendencies Sasuke was apparently experiencing thanks to the seal. He already couldn't wait for this mission to be over.

.

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It didn't take long for Sasuke to reach the clearing where his Sound escort waited. There were four of them, and none of them were what he'd call normal, "I'm here. Now what?"

The one with six arms held a bottle up in one hand, "Now we give you one of these pills, you take a nap and when you wake up we're all in Oto and your stronger." He tossed the bottle to the fake Uchiha, "Now eat up."

Sasuke looked down at the pills distrustfully, "How do I know these aren't poison?"

It was the girl who spoke next, "Cause Orochimaru-sama would kill us if we let anything happen to you. Now eat a freakin pill before I shove it down your throat."

"Now that wasn't very lady like Tyuya. You should really try to be better." the fat one said.

"Shut up!" She whirled on him and shouted. Then she whirled back to the false Uchiha, "Now eat the pill like a good boy."

Sasuke was still unsure but he figured he didn't have all that much to lose so he tapped a pill out of the bottle and chewed it up. Then he put the bottle in his pocket. At first it didn't seem like anything was happening, but then he grunted and staggered before collapsing to his knees.

"Oh oops, I forgot to mention," the two headed one said, "These pills are really hard on the body so your going to sleep for awhile ok? But don't worry you'll be sealed in this big barrel that will keep you nice and safe."

Sasuke felt his vision start to haze and cursed, That pill must have had a sedative...in...it. His world faded to black.

.

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Tsunade glanced up as Shikamaru entered her office, "Good your here. We've had a situation develop, Sasuke has left the village to join with Orochimaru. By himself he's not all that much of a threat, but I worry about what might happen if that snake get's his hands on him. I want you to gather a team and pursue Sasuke to bring him home if you can, but don't risk your life or the life of any of your teams to do it. I'd rather have you alive than him."

"Hai Hokage-sama." the chunin said, then left to gather his team.

.

.

Naruto woke up coughing. There was smoke all around him and wooden walls were keeping the smoke from escaping. In desperation the blond started pounding against the walls hoping one of them would give so that he could breath pure air. Finally the walls around him collapsed and he gasped in as much pure air as his lungs could take.

The Uzumaki let his breathing slow and as he did his attention was drawn to the sound of battle behind him he turned and saw Choji and Lee fighting that Kimmimaru kid that had met with Mizuki, they didn't look like they were doing too well. He hoped they'd follow the Hokage's orders and retreat before it got to be life threatening.

"Sasuke!" Choji shouted. Naruto jerked in surprise. Oh right, he was playing the Uchiha brat right now. Oops, that sedative must have done a really number on him. He glanced up to see Choji running toward him, and remembered his own orders from Tsunade-sama. Fighting Choji would be a bad idea on it's own since he would probably have the best chance of outing him as an imposter, but with the Hokage's standing order to not fight allies he was even more convinced that it was time to leave here and continue on toward Sound. So, with a creepy giggle that he hoped seemed like Sasuke, he took off.

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes later that Naruto came to the valley of the end and lept across the chasm between the Shodai's head and Madara's. He was half-way through his jump when he heard something big coming at him from behind. Without his conscious permission his hands shot above his head and sent a burst of wind towards the sky. The Sasuke imposter was shocked when, instead of air, fire flew from his hands with the force of a flame thrower. His body's momentum immediately changed so that he was heading towards the river at the bottom of the canyon. He was so shocked by what had happened that he only managed to whisper, "cool." Before he hit the water. The cold river forced him out of his shock and he came to the surface gasping for breath. As he pulled himself out he saw a massive fist start to shrink and retract back over the Shodai's head.

He was shaking the water off of himself when he felt the air around him cool as the sun was blotted out. He looked up in surprise and nearly cursed as he saw a much larger than normal Choji falling towards him. He turned and sprinted to get out from underneath the enormous Akamichi, and barely made it in time to miss being instantly crushed, but he wasn't fast enough to get away from the tidal wave of misplaced water. He once again pulled himself from the water and, for the third time in less than an hour he gasped for air. But he didn't let himself sit there for too long Choji was no doubt readying another attack.

Naruto jumped to his feet, his body tense in expectation of an attack. But he felt himself unconsciously relaxing when he saw Choji just standing on top of the water in front of Madara's statue, "Choji." Sasuke's brooding voice said as Naruto noted that he was standing very near the Shodai's massive stone feet, "You shouldn't have followed me."

The Akamichi shook his head, "There's no way I was going to just let you defect! You my not be a ninja anymore but you're still a citizen of Konoha and my mission is to bring you back!"

The false Sasuke snorted, "Really? You think you can force me to come back? On your own?" Naruto saw Choji wince and couldn't help but feel a little guilty. The blond liked plump boy he had always treated Naruto fairly, but Sasuke was a jerk, sooo… "You'll never be strong enough to match me."

The Akamichi;s eyes hardened, "Think again. You've been out of the ninja corps for almost seven months. I've been in them and getting stronger. I will bring you back even if it means I have to hurt you first!"

Choji rushed at Sasuke with his fist raised for a punch and expanding even as he ran. The false Sasuke waited for just the right moment and then forced a ton of chakra into his feet and rocketed into the air and over the plumper boy. When his feet once again hit the water he took off running. At the Base of Madara's statue he once again forced Chakra through his feet and let himself soar twenty feet into the air. With a half flip his feet landed on the wall and he kept running upward. At the top he paused long enough to look back and see where Choji was and with wide eyes he dropped to the ground as a very large foot passed over his head. The foot started to fall. The blond rolled out of the way and gulped as the stone around the foot shattered from the force of the blow.

He rolled back to his feet and prepared to run into the forest at the border of the land of rice when he caught a flash of Kabuto, watching from one of the trees. Naruto froze. A large fist to his side sent him careening back over the edge of the statue. With a gasp of pain Naruto pulled out a kunai with ninja wire attached, he threw the kunai to near the top of the statue. The wire went taunt and he used his momentum to send him flying back toward the top of the statue. He came at Choji from behind and gave him a flying kick. The Akamichi's eyes widened as the kick sent him falling through the air.

The blond landed and winced as his injured side screamed at him for its abuse. He looked down at Choji falling into the water and felt ashamed. He should leave now, but he had a feeling Sasuke would stay and destroy his opponent both physically and emotionally. Which meant, since Kabuto was watching, he should stay and destroy his plump friend, but how he wished he didn't need to.

Naruto put his focus back on the fight as Choji arrived back on top of the head, "You think one hit is going to hurt me? I'm an Akamichi it will take more than that to beat me!"

"I just think it's sad that you can't give pain as well as you take it." the fake Sasuke said in a board tone, "Are you just going to talk about how strong you've gotten or are you actually going to do something to prove it? Because so far I haven't been all that impressed."

Choji gave an enraged shout and charged at Sasuke, but the imposter ducked down and sent the Akamichi over his shoulder and turned to see him sliding over the edge.

Naruto had to fight back the urge to move forward and catch his friend but he knew that it would take more than a tumble into water to destroy his friend, so he let him fall. A large hand shot up over the edge and grabbed onto the imposter. The blond barely had time to gasp before the hand was around him and pulling him over as well.

As he fell, the Uzumaki struggled to escape the hold but his friends grasp on him was too tight. He hit the water with a terrific splash and started to struggle more desperately. He only had a few minutes before he fell unconscious due to lack of oxygen.

His time was almost up the corners of his eyes were beginning to grey, and his lungs were screaming for air. Finally in a last ditch effort he pulled as much chakra into his hands as he could and then pushed it out as massive bursts of flame onto the hand holding him. The hand released. He pushed water into his feet and ran up until he got to air. The imposter fell to knees gasping.

"You keep calling me weak, but I'm not. And if you can't see that by now then you're blind." Choji gasped out, also tired from the rigorous fight.

The false Sasuke shrugged, "Maybe there's hope for you yet, but for now you're still pathetic." The Uzumaki took a breath and cut off the chakra to his feet. He dropped into the river like a stone. On top of the water Choji looked around for his opponent and moved to keep from getting caught. But Naruto was faster and a hand on the plumper boy's ankle sent the Akamichi falling face first into the river.

Once both boys were under the water the blond grabbed Choji from behind and forced all the oxygen from his lungs with a crushing squeeze. The Akamichi's mouth involuntarily opened as the air was forced out and water rushed in. With what was left of his concentration, the plumper boy expanded his body into the shape of a ball. Naruto was forced to let go. Choji swam to the surface as quickly as he could.

The surface of the river broke as Choji rose out of it and made his way to the shore before choking out the water he'd been forced to swallow. The false Sasuke came and stood imperiously over him, "Do you still think you're strong enough to stop me?"

The Akamichi gulped in a breath of air then gasped, "I _need _to win. Everyone is counting on me to bring you home."

The temporary brunet crouched down in front of Choji, "You are such a child. Are you seriously so unsure of yourself that you need to impress everyone else to feel confidant?" the imposter snorted, "You deserve to lose today."

Naruto reached over and started to squeeze the pressure point on his friends neck, but he let up at the last moment and whispered, "I'm sorry." Then he knocked the other boy out and collapsed back with a groan. Those hits had _hurt._

Less than a minute latter a shadow fell over Naruto and he looked up into the face of Kabuto. "Impressive," the silver haired spy said, "but now is not the time to relax. The rest of the Konoha team will no doubt be here soon and we need to be long gone by the time they arrive."

The Uzumaki allowed himself a sigh. Then, with a pain filled groan, he pulled himself up and forced his tired, aching body to follow after Kabuto.

.

.

It took a day to reach the underground cave that was supposedly hidden Sound, and thankfully, in spite of being forced to keep moving, the injuries he'd gotten from his battle with Choji were mostly healed and the pain was now minimal.

Kabuto paused in front of a plain wooden door, and Naruto could hear the rasping, pain filled breathing coming from the other side of the door even before it was pushed open. He ignored the creaking hinges as his eyes came to rest on a sickly bed ridden Orochimaru, 'Well', the imposter thought, 'my job just got way, way easier.'

The serpentine ninja looked up and rasped, "So you finally made it. Good." As Orochimaru finished speaking his body collapsed to the side and a purple mist rose out of it and shot towards Naruto. The false Sasuke shuddered as the mist hovered around his throat. But after a moment it moved away from him and towards a suddenly horrified Kabuto.

The silver-haired spy stepped back with his hands raised in front of him to ineffectively ward off the intangible mist, "No, no please master. I've always been faithful and useful please!" The mist shot into Kabuto's chest, he closed his eyes and screamed. But the scream quickly died away and the silver-haired ninja's eyes opened to reveal Orochimaru's serpentine, yellow eyes.

Naruto shuddered again, "That's definitely going to be making a reappearance in my nightmares. Thanks for the memory."

The new Orochimaru brushed an invisible piece of lint off of his shoulder, "If you had had the curse seal like you were supposed to, you wouldn't have a new unpleasant memory and I would still have my best subordinate."

Naruto blanched he was _so _glad seals didn't come along with his blood transformation, "On second thought, the memory's not so bad."

The serpent smirked, "Indeed. Now tell me _Sasuke-kun _how is it you don't have my seal. Surely my old idiot of a teammate hasn't managed to break it. Yet here you are, Uchiha Sasuke, without a seal the even I don't know how to break."

'Oh cra-' the imposter didn't get any further in his thought because Orochimaru shot forward with a shout of, "Imposter!"

Naruto had been trained for over a year by some of the best sensei in Konoha, he'd repeatedly been in high stress situations and had managed to keep a cool head. But when the ninja that had once been Kabuto came rocketing towards him with the intent to kill, all the blond could do was shriek, duck, cover his head with his arms, and wait for the killing blow.

A few moments of silence passed before Naruto manged to work up the courage to look up. When he did, he saw Orochimaru's frozen fist just inches away from obliterating his skull. He let out a gasp and fell on his rear as he hastily scooted back. It was only when he was out of immediate danger that he saw the shadow pooled around the snakes feet in a way that looked very much like Shika's kage mane jutsu.

The blond was brought out of his observation by the sound of Orochimaru's voice, "I see you brought allies imposter. Wise. But now that it's clear I'm no threat would you show me who you really are? I'd love to see the actual face of the one who deceived me."

Naruto thought through the pro's and con's of showing who he really was and in the end decided that no matter what happened next he would be better off as himself. So, with a shrug he put his hands in the ram sign and focused the chakra he'd need to release the jutsu. His eyes were blinded by the puff of smoke and he could feel his own chakra rushing up to the level it should be at. As the smoke cleared he gave a relieved sigh. It was good to have enough chakra to pop of a couple thousand kage bushin again.

When Orochimaru saw the blond before him he quirked an eyebrow, "The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, how interesting." a malicious smile oozed over his face, "what a wonderful test subject you'll make."

The blond thought he was going to be sick. But then it got worse. The snake defied the shadow holding him and quickly twisted his neck unnaturally far to the right. From the shadows behind Orochimaru there was the sound of a neck snapping and then a body falling lifelessly to the floor. The jutsu shattered and the snake turned his head back towards Naruto as if it was no issue to turn ones head 120 degrees, "No that that nuisance is out of the way perhaps I can get down to the business of capturing you." He took a step forward but his movement was arrested as the other three root of alpha squad came to stand in a line with Naruto, "Ah, the rest of you team, and root too." Orochimaru got into a fighting stance, "I suppose now I'll have to keep one of you alive to warn Danzo of just how much he'll regret betraying me."

Then the sanin shot forward and Naruto and one of the root operatives rushed to meet him. The other two stayed back, the blond one quickly flipped through hand signs and then slumped to the floor while the other, the only female in the group, stood protectively over him.

The three running ninja met in the middle. Orochimaru jumped over their heads and once in the air threw a brach of kunai at the still blond. All of which struck true. Naruto whipped around to come at the snake from behind, but paused long enough to visually check that the blond root was still alive. From so far away all he could tell was that the downed root was breathing.

The sanin went after the other root that had stayed back with a straight forward push but at the last instant he blurred out of existence and reappeared behind the same root member. That purple-haired root member quickly turned around and redirected Orochimaru's attack, but she didn't have time to fully deflect it and the snake's fist still grazed the side of her face with enough force to knock the mask askew. The sanin quirked a brow as, for a moment, he was able to see what seemed to be a white sightless eye beneath the off kilter mask.

Orochimaru was forced to ignore his discovery for the moment and duck and Naruto came at him with a round house kick from behind, then the snake dropped and rolled as the female Hyuuga sent a jyuuken strike straight down towards his heart. The sanin flipped trough hand signs as he rolled and as he came back into a standing position he released a vicious whirlwind that knocked the three other fighters away and gave Orochimaru a moment to breath.

The air stilled and the silence became deafening as both sides waited for the other to make a move. Finally the last standing male of Alpha squad rushed forward with his allies right behind him. He yanked off the gloves that completely covered his hands as he ran. When he got to Orochimaru he aimed a punch at the snakes face. The sanin blocked, and a black sore started to spread from the place where the root male had touched.

Orochimaru's eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed in anger. He lashed out with his leg and tripped the male root. Then sent a vicious kick into his side that caused even an emotionless root to curl in slightly in pain. The snake followed the kick to the side with a cruel kick to the head that sent the male root into unconsciousness.

The snake looked up to see his last two enemies keeping their distance and let out a cruel laugh, "Is it me you are keeping your distance from or the plague that your teammate infested me with? Or do you just think that soon I will be dead and therefore fighting me is not worth your effort. Well, you're wrong." The sanin's mouth opened to sickeningly unnatural proportions and another Orochimaru slipped and and quickly jumped away from the lifeless shell that was being devoured by the black scourge.

Naruto gulped not only had this creep easily taken out three root from alpha squad, but apparently, fatal blows weren't so fatal for him. The blond kinda wished he could retreat, now, but Danzo would either kill him or torture him for failing so he might as well die here. The blond sent a brace of wind sharpened shuriken towards Orochimaru. The snake dodged through them with and only got a few minor cuts. The sanin rushed at the Hyuuga and quickly engaged her in a taijutsu match. That she was losing.

The blond wanted to intervene, but the two fighters were moving at speeds so far above what he was capable of. He was afraid if he tried to help he'd end up hurting his teammate instead. Two minutes later Orochimaru stood clutching his side with one hand and holding an unconscious Hyuuga off the ground with the other. With a careless flick of his arm the snake sent the woman bouncing across the floor.

The sanin focused his serpentine eyes on Naruto, and suddenly, the urge to run became overwhelming.

The blond took one step back and froze. He didn't like the Orochimaru's eyes lite up when he did that. Like this was some twisted game of predator and prey with him as the panicking prey. If he couldn't run without making this whole thing even more enjoyable for the monster in front of him then he'd have to fight and hope for a miracle. With a gulp Naruto quickly created a thousand clones and sent them forward.

Orochimaru moved with an unnatural and deadly grace as he wove through the wave of blonds killing clone after clone. Naruto watched from the sidelines as he sorted through his quickly dieing clones memories trying to find a weakness. He thought he had something and rushed into the fray... only to trip and land face first on the floor. As he turned over he saw Orochimaru's annoyed face above him as the sanin's elongated neck slowly retracted back to it's normal length, "You must be quite lucky, tripping just moments before I place the curse seal on you. Well or you're just very clumsy. I hope not though. You won't make a very good weapon if you can't keep on your feet."

Naruto was confused. There were still nearly 300 clones behind him and the ones that died showed Orochimaru's face as that of their killer, "Wha... but, how are you here when your out there killing all my clones?"

The snake let out a malicious chuckle, "You of all people should know that. You are after all uncommonly good with clones."

The blond gulped. He was screwed. Not only did he have to face a sanin _alone, _but he had to face a sanin that could make clones and he had no idea how to tell the real from the fake. He let his hand move towards the very special compartments on his belt. The ones that held the DNA he could use to transform. Orochimaru was clearly above his level, so he needed to even the odds. Naruto grabbed one of the many tiny pills Sakura had worked DNA into and popped it into his mouth. He channeled his chakra and as it rose higher and higher he mourned the price he would have to pay to use this most hated transformation. Then his world went black.

Orochimaru saw his newest experiment take a pill but assumed it was just a soldier pill as he rushed forward to finish the fight, but before he got there the boy burst into smoke and when the smoke cleared the snake froze in astonishment. Before him where the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had been was a large, tentacled blob of... something. The sanins shock left him vulnerable and one of the jello like tentacles managed to hit him upside the head with surprising force. Orochimaru went flying.

The snake quickly sent a cutting wind jutsu at the... thing, and several tentacles fell to the assault. The creature screamed in pain and suddenly the tentacles that were madly whipping about were covered in cutting wind chakra, and slicing everything they came in contact with. The sanin was very careful to keep his distance and he pulled out a fire jutsu.

Five minutes later Orochimaru felt like screaming in frustration. Wind jutsu's no longer work thanks to the wind chakra now completely surrounding the thing. Fire turned into a missive ball of flame that sent the creature squealing, but really didn't do all that much. Earth just got shredded by the wind, and water; water just made the thing grow bigger!

Fed up with this unstoppable creature Orochimaru pulled out his strongest lightning jutsu and sent it rocketing towards the thing. As the lighting struck it, the creature roared in pain and it looked like the thing would finally be defeated. But then trees started sprouting from the creature pulling all the lightning away from it and into the ground.

The Thing was fed up with this tiny creature that was attacking it and trying to cause pain so it, in it's little brain, decided that the pain bringer must go. The Thing laboriously moved forward, it's tentacles whipping about even more fiercely than before, and a large wave of newly grown trees rushing before it.

Orochimaru looked at the oncoming wave of trees in horror and quickly decided that this room, spacious though it was, was no where near large enough to safely face a creature of this size and strength. He turned to rush out one of his secret doors. But the moment his back was turned the trees rushed forward even faster and enveloped him in their wooden grasp.

The snake tried to struggle free stretching his body in every weird way it was capable of, and even tried shedding again, but nothing worked. It wasn't very long before the sanin started to feel so very tired, but he didn't understand why, even with all the chakra he'd used he should still be full of energy. He let his eyes tiredly droop towards the branch around his chest and his eyes widened when they laid eyes on it. The branch was glowing with purple chakra, his chakra!

He needed to get out of this trap before he was drained dry, even he couldn't survive a complete chakra drain. Trying to transfer bodies after such a recent transfer could kill him but staying in this twisted creatures tree would definitely make him die. Orochimaru disengaged his soul from this latest body. But the soul would not release, in panic the snake tried again, but his soul held fast. The sanin cursed, thanks to his immortality jutsu his soul was more tied to his chakra than normal. That must be making it impossible for him to pull away. As long as his chakra was held it would be impossible for him to escape.

As the last of his chakra drained away, Orochimaru looked at the Thing that had finally conquered him. He had hoped to be able to face a prettier sight when he died, or to not die at all. Tsunade, her face would have been a nice last face to see... the snake's eyes drooped, as his body went limp, as death finally claimed the villain.

.

.

Naruto woke up with a groan. He hated becoming The Thing. His mind always went right out the window and he was left hoping that The Thing would be able to stay alive. Perversely, it seemed like the thing was better at staying alive than he was as he'd never lost a fight when he'd used it.

The blond sat up with a hand on his aching head and looked around, then his jaw dropped. The room he was in was a disaster. The walls were cut to bits there were _trees _growing out of everything. Suddenly Naruto paled and shot to his feet, his teammate's! He knew that a least one of them was alive before he became the thing!

He made twenty clones and staggered. He must have used a _ton _of chakra as The Thing. He sent his clones out to look for his allies as he looked to. Five minutes later all four of them had been found and dragged into another room, one that didn't look like a strong breeze would send it tumbling down. Thankfully three of the root were still breathing. He looked them over and did the best he could to give them first aid and then he sealed away the body of the Nara that had saved his life. After that he sent a clone with a message back to Danzo asking for a team with a good medic on it to come get them. Then he let his eyes slide shut as he gave into his exhaustion.

.

.

Naruto didn't know how much time had passed when the Hyuuga root poked him awake and shoved a plate of... some sort of food into his hands. He looked around to see that the other two root were awake as well. One of them tossed him a scroll that, they said, held Orochimaru's body in it. They spent a half hour eating and getting onto the same page.

Then Naruto set his food aside with a smile, "Well, since we're all too injured to make it back home and it will take two days for my clone to get back to Konoha and another two for the retrieval squad to get back to us; I'd like to use this time to talk to you about Danzo..."


	3. Chapter 3

A/N I'd like everyone to note right now that this chapter **does not **complete the story. Enjoy. :)

Chapter three- Final countdown

**Six weeks later**

Naruto sat pondering his fathers grave. He couldn't believe that just two months ago he'd marched away from this grave with the intention of never seeing it again. But now, things were different. The last month had done a lot to change his perception of things.

_FLASHBACK_

Naruto snarled as he threw out another pair of moldy briefs. He knew mist was supposed to be damp but this damp? Seriously? He cursed Danzo for sending him here. Sure he could understand the value of sending him and twenty other root to aid the bloodline rebels of Kiri. After all the second part of his mission was to forge a treaty between mist and root, once the rebels won of course. But he had already started in on a treaty, between Konoha and mist.

He looked up from his angry contemplation of his moldy briefs as he heard Zabuza laugh behind him, "You lost another pair? How many more pairs are you gonna let yourself lose before you take my advice and actually start caring for your clothes?"

The blond glared up at the mist rebel, "Shut up Zabuza. It's not _that _funny."

The mist nin snorted, "Oh yes it is. Besides, we're living in the middle of a swamp. It's not like entertainment is dropping out of the mossy trees."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Haku, "Zabuza-sama! One our companies is getting hit by an enemy battalion! Their down to less than fifty men!"

The mist ninja and blond immediately jumped to their feet and rushed to get their gear. Naruto ran into his tent and grabbed his basic pack as well as his weapons pouch, he turned to leave his tent when a scroll Shika had left for him caught his eye. He paused and debated for a moment. When Shika and Jiraiya had come to remove his root seal the Nara had revealed that he'd managed to rework the hirashin, even changed the name to the kazaana. That scroll held all the kazaana kunai he'd manged to make so far. Naruto finally grabbed the scroll and stuffed it into his weapons pouch. A battalion was at least 300 men and with a squad of fifty or less facing them having a jutsu like the kazaana around couldn't hurt.

The blond met up with Zabuza, Haku and twenty other ninja at the east edge of camp, "Twenty? That's it? Where are the rest of the men?"

Zabuza glared at him, "Out fighting other battles. It seems our beloved enemies have decided to push a massive offensive. It's taxing our defenses."

Naruto felt a sinking in his gut, "Are these men need elsewhere?"

"They're needed everywhere!" the eyebrow-less jonin shouted, "They're just needed here most."

The Uzumaki sighed, "Send them elsewhere. I have a jutsu that can turn the tide. They'll just get in the way."

A hairless brow rose, "You sure kid? We can't afford to lose."

Naruto nodded, "I'm sure."

Zabuza frowned, "I hope you know what you're doing." Then he turned and directed the twenty men to go reinforce another battle. As soon as they complied; he, Naruto and Haku took off to save what was left of that company."

.

.

It didn't take the three ninja long to reach the company on their eastern border. Or, what was left of the company at least. The battlefield was in pieces, and the company that was fifty was now down by at least another twenty. With more falling even as they watched. Naruto had seen a lot of terrible things, especially since coming here, nut this was one memory that would definitely be coming back to haunt him. Next to him he could hear Zabuza cursing under his breath, "There are almost 200 enemy shinobi. The three of us aren't going too make any difference in this fight." the mist jonin said.

"Yes we will." the blond replied, "Have all our ninja retreat. I'll use my jutsu to even the odds."

Zabuza eyed Naruto doubtfully for a moment then shrugged, "Well they're gonna die if they stay down there so we might as well try it your way."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." the boy muttered as Zabuza walked forward and sounded the retreat.

The mist ninja immediately responded to the call to retreat but were having difficulty getting away. The enemy nin were dogging their every backward step. Naruto narrowed his eyes. In the front is was a mess of enemies and allies, but in the back and middle there were only enemies to contend with. Naruto rolled Shika's scroll out on the ground and quickly unsealed the three pronged kunai inside, "Zabuza Haku, quick, help me throw these into the middle and back of the enemy ranks. Make sure not to throw them too closely together, and try to take someone out with them."

The mist jonin turned to shout at Naruto for his idiotic plan until his eyes came to rest on the three pronged kunai with seals on the handle. He felt his eyes widen as a shiver went down his spine. He may not be a Konoha ninja, but every ninja in the world knew what those kunai looked like and all knew to fear them. Zabuza gave a vicious grin, "Kid is that the jutsu I think it is and do you actually know how to use it?"

The blond glanced up, "It close enough to what your thinking, and yes I know how to use it. Now help me throw these kunai into the battlefield." All three ninja picked up double handfuls of kunai and started distributing them among the enemy ranks. Apparently, Zabuza wasn't the only one who knew what these kunai could do. Because as soon as they started raining down on the enemy. The enemy ranks turned into a boiling mess of confusion, with most still running forward to take out the few ninja left in the mist company, but with enough running back trying to escape the jutsu Naruto was about to use, to bring the enemy battalion to a standstill.

They finished distributing the kunai and Naruto weaved the signs, then with a whisper of, "Kazaana." The blond vanished. There was no flash of yellow as Zabuza had been expecting, but rather the piercing wail of wind traveling too quickly. The wail seemed to be everywhere and nowhere as enemy ninja below him fell to an enemy that was too fast to see. He could see as the battalion went form confidence in their victory, to sheer terror. And then it was over. The piercing wail was gone, and Naruto was back by his side. Watching the very few enemy survivors retreat back the way they had come, while their beleaguered allies cheered over the impossible victory.

Naruto looked down at the battlefield that just moments ago had been teaming with life. But was now filled with nothing but slowly cooling corpses, and he felt ill. How many people had he just killed? 100? More? Naruto rushed behind one of the nearby mossy trees and let himself be sick. Zabuza fallowed after him and leaned against the tree.

"I... I just _massacred_ hundreds of people." the blond said, "I'm a monster."

Zabuza shook his head, "No, you just _saved _thirty-three allies. The rest is irrelevant. It has to be if you don't want to go nuts. Forget those faces. Forget this battlefield if you can, and burn into your memory the faces of every single one of the people you saved today, and when someone calls you a monster or brings up this fight. Remember the face of every person whose still breathing because you were here."

Naruto stayed n the ground letting out near sobbing breaths for a moment, then he brought himself back under control and stood to go and speak with all the people he had saved. His eyes were a little emptier, but as he memorized the faces of those he had saved; he managed to bear the weight of what he had done.

.

.

Two weeks later a treaty was signed between the two waring factions of mist, as the side against bloodlines was cowed by they bloodline soldier who could do the Yondaime Hokages terrifying technique. Terumi Mai became the fifth Mizukage, and should her skill in leading as she slowly worked to bring the two factions back into one united whole. Of course it would take time for mist to be the unified powerhouse it had once been, but at least now there was a start.

One week later Naruto was back in Konoha with a treaty between Konoha and mist that just needed to be finalized. And there were rumors quickly circulating among the elemental countries of a second yellow flash. A blond ninja that had been nicknamed the shrieking wind for the horrible sound his jutsu made as death reined down on his enemies.

_END FLASHBACK_

Naruto brought his attention back to his fathers grave stone and lovingly brushed away the dirt that had collected on it, "I never thought I'd be back here so soon dad. In fact I really didn't see myself coming back here at all, but I had to come at least one more time."

The blond furrowed his brow as her tried to think of how to say what he needed to, "I-I want to say I forgive you. For- for sealing the Kyuubi into me. I did hate you for it, but-" Naruto clenched his hand in the fabric of his shirt over the seal, "I think now I understand where you were coming from. I had to use your hiraishin on my last mission. It was the only way my side would win. I killed a lot of people that day, I think the final count was 207, or something. I felt like I was gonna die, being responsible for so many deaths. Konoha has more than 10,000 people. It must have been horrible when the Kyuubi attacked and everyone was turning to you for a way to stop an unbeatable monster. And you had to face the knowledge that if you failed the deaths of thousands would be on your head."

"And not just that night either. I found out while I was in mist that there were rumors of Konoha sealing the nine-tails into someone that was already old enough to be trained. The other nations stayed away from us because they thought we have a weapon of mass destruction ready to go off if they tried anything. By sealing the Kyuubi into me, you saved thousands of lives. Not just that night, but everyday since when people hear that Konoha has the Kyuubi jinchuuriki."

"I'll Never be all that happy about having the fuzz butt sealed inside of me. But, I'm glad you sealed him away. It's better to have one child suffer loneliness and neglect, then to have an entire village of thousands burn. I... don't know how you felt about me. Whether you were happy to be a father or... well unhappy. But, I don't think you hated me anymore. I'm sorry for being so bratty about what you did, what you had to do. I guess... I just wanted you to know that I don't hate you."

Naruto gently brushed his fingers over the gravestone one more time, and then stood. He had a council meeting to get to.

.

.

Hinata shifted nervously in the Hyuuga clan council seat as she watched the other Konoha council members trickle into the meeting hall. Although she'd been Hyuuga clan head for more than six months now, it was still hard not to be cowed by the older more experienced clan heads around her. It didn't take long for all the council members to take their seats, and soon Tsunade-sama was clearing her throat to bring all eyes to her.

"You're probably wondering why I asked you here today." the Hokage started, "You may have noticed that I'm starting in spite of the absence of several minor clan heads, most of the civilian guilds and, of course, councilman Danzo. Well they weren't invited to this meeting and if you tell them it will be your head. Now, I'm sure you've all heard the rumors surrounding Danzo. I'm equally sure some of you have already started looking into them and, maybe even, have started to react to those rumors."

"I was concerned that unsubstantiated rumors such as these might lead to a civil war. So I had one of my most promising spies look into it for me. I have already heard is report, but I thought you might like to hear it as well." Tsunade turned to one of the hidden ANBU, "Tiger please show Nara Shikamaru in."

There was a puff of smoke and then the door to the council room opened and Shikamaru stepped inside and immediately after shutting the door went down to one knee in respect, "Hokage-sama."

The blond kage nodded for the young Nara to rise, "Report."

Shikamaru stood and turned to the council chambers, "I've been studying Danzo for the last month as per Hokage-sama's orders, and while the rumors are terribly blown out of proportion or outright false; unfortunately, most of the rumors do have a grounding in fact. Danzo has slowly been turning the political climate of Konoha in his favor, and while all of you here have been found to have no ties with him, several of the smaller clans do. And what's worse is that nearly 75 percent of Konoha businessmen have at least a few ties to Danzo, and 17 percent of Konoha's active shinobi would side with him over Hokage-sama."

Tsume snorted, "75 percent of our merchants and _17 percent _of our ninja and you say the rumors are overblown? That means there are 850 traitors running around being trusted while they work for a rat!"

"While perhaps my friends comment is a bit passionate I must agree with her statement. By what you are saying Konoha could be, at the very least, on the brink of an economic civil war. At the worst we could be facing a civil war." Shibi stated.

Shikaku nodded, "He's right. For the moment we have an overwhelming majority of numbers, but Tsunade-sama has only been hokage for a year. Many ninja would see her inability to prevent a civil war as proof enough that she isn't a capable Kage. They might join with Danzo simply because they think he's the better option."

"Bb-but surely our nnn-ninjjja would bb-be more loyal than thattt." Hinata's quite voice said.

Shikamaru was the one who replied, "Our ninja are loyal, but they are also trained to stay alive. Unfortunately sometimes being loyal to your village means turning against your kage. Everyone of our ninja will weight he pro's and con's of breaching the loyalty to the hokage, and then they'll take the option that turns their stomach the least."

"This is all very interesting," Koharu said, "but I don't see anything _besides _rumors against Danzo, and I refuse to turn my back on a dear friend for so little proof."

Tsunade sat up, "You're absolutely right. I should have had the proof bought in ages ago. Tiger show them in." The now visible ANBU saluted and then vanished in another puff of smoke."

Soon four ninja dressed like ANBU walked into the council chamber and closed the door behind them. Hinata was startled to see that while their clothes were what an ANBU would wear, their masks were all identical. Plain white except for the Ni kanji on the forehead. She noticed several of the other clan heads shifting in their seats uncomfortably before Choza spoke up, "Hokage-sama why have you brought root operatives into our council. It seems a bit unwise to let them stay here."

The fifth smiled, "Who better to tell us whether the rumors are true or not than the enemies soldiers. Naruto unmask." The blond Uzumaki, or rather Namikaze now, pulled the root mask off with a foxy grin on his face. Tsunade continued, "For the last seven months I've had Naruto running a black-ops mission for me. His mission was to infiltrate root and find enough incriminating evidence to have it shut down and Danzo executed. I think you'll find that he has more than succeeded."

"Why him and not one of our more experienced spies?" Shibi asked.

"For two reasons." Tsunade replied, "One, Danzo would have easily spotted any spy we sent in as he has access to Konoha records. _That _is a proven fact and was far before these other crimes came to my attention. The second reason is simple. Danzo approached Naruto with an invitation to join root. I could hardly let such an opportunity slip past me. Oh and I didn't really have a choice but to let him stay as his mission started before I was instated as hokage. Now Naruto why you show us what you found."

The blond boy nodded and unsealed a thick pile of papers, "In this pile is the name of every active duty shinobi he's pulled to his side and the name of every merchant who will chose him over Hokage-sama and why, usually he help them skirt Konoha tariffs or other taxes. Also in this list you'll find a signed contract between him and Orochimaru for aid in the invasion in exchange for the kage hat."

The room erupted into angry whispers at this statement, but Naruto's voice steamrolled over them, "And you'll find a rather long document about what really happened the night of the Uchiha massacre. Including the fact that Uchiha Itachi was set up. He thought he was doing the job the Third asked him to do, but instead he was made into Danzo's puppet. Danzo's orders included an order for him to go gather information on the Akutski as a spy. Information he is keeping to himself. There is also a report on how Danzo trains his root soldiers, including the seal he puts on their tongue that keeps them from revealing anything about root. That's the bulk of what this stack contains, but there are a few other minor things."

The room was silent as the blond boy finished. Finally a very pale Shikaku stood up, "I want to see that document on the Uchiha massacre" Naruto nodded and pulled it from near the top of the stack. The Nara clan head quickly started skimming through it and the more he read the more violently he swore. When he got to the end he snapped the rather thick document shut. And glared up at the Fifth, "Hokage-sama permission to go and gut that scumbag?"

Tsunade smiled, "In time but this needs to be handled with delicacy if we still want to have a village when this is done. Now Naruto I believe you have some other information to pass on to us?"

The boy nodded, "As compelling as these documents are, they're not the only incriminating knowledge I got. I got lucky really. There's no way I would have been able to get deeply enough into Danzo's trust to get this information in just seven months time. But fortunately, a little over month ago I was able to find three excellent allies."

Naruto stepped to the side and threw his arm out toward the other three root with a flourish, "I'd like you to meet root's Alpha squad, three of Danzo's most trusted soldiers and completely loyal to Tsunade-sama. These three are not only the _only _reason I was able to get so much on Danzo, but they are also the final proof I have on what a monster Danzo is." The blond boy turned to the other root, "Go ahead and unmask guys."

The three root pulled off their masks and two of the of the clan heads seemed caught between gasping and fainting from the shock in front of them, while one only seemed confused. It was Shibi who stood first. He went to stand in front of the root member that had his hands fully covered by gloves, "Little brother? Fu?"

Fu froze for a moment then nodded, "That was my name once now I am known as two."

Naruto spotted the council's confusion and spoke up, "It's part of Danzo's training method. He breaks you completely, until there's nothing left of who you once were. He doesn't even leave you the courtesy of a name."

Shibi turned to his little brother, "Is this true? Is there nothing left of who you once were?"

The Aburame root nodded and said in a dead voice, "I learned a long time ago that to be Fu was painful. Being two allowed me privileges and freedom from the torture."

For the first time in a long time the Aburame clan head's face screwed up in anger and the whole room could hear the buzzing of his kikaichu. He wanted to go out and _murder _Danzo for stealing away his little brother and making everyone think he was dead! Then destroying everything that made Fu... Fu. His anger was given a new focus as he heard the young Namikaze boy gently speak, "You did well two you may put your mask back on and head back to Ibiki."

"No!" Shibi shouted, "He will stay right here. I will not lose my little brother again!"

Naruto's eyes flashed as he looked at the Aburame head, "He will go to Ibiki-sensei, and start on the next session of his deprograming. It's hard enough for these three to reveal themselves and take up identities that they learned long ago were only connected with pain. Don't make it worse by forcing two to move further than he is yet capable of doing. Besides emotions make them nervous. So let him go. He's a Konoha shinobi again and, while he'll never be who he was before, soon he'll be back with you, his family." It took a moment for Shibi to calm his unnatural anger, but he soon nodded and went back to his seat sitting stiffly in his council chair as he watched his little brother vanish in a puff of smoke.

Hinata hardly noticed the Aburame clan head's meltdown, uncommon though it was, for her attention was focused fully on the one female of Alpha squad. The woman had the pale eyes of a Hyuuga and even more shocking Hinata felt like she knew this woman. But at the same time the recognition was so vague that she wasn't sure whether or it came simply because the woman looked like a Hyuuga. The young clan head glanced up at the woman's forehead, a main branch member no less. She wanted to stand and ask who this Hyuuga was, but she found herself frozen. The woman's eyes were so dead. It was almost like looking at a breathing corpse.

"She's Hyuuga Hotaru. Your aunt I believe." Hinata jumped as Naruto seemed to appear at her elbow from out of nowhere. But then turned back to her... aunt. The woman would have to be her mothers sister as all of her aunts form her fathers side were alive and accounted for.

She saw the root women shift in discomfort and felt a wave of sympathy for her and whispered to the Namikaze, "Dismiss her Naruto. I've seem enough to see that she's a Hyuuga main family member. Let go somewhere were she can be more comfortable."

The blond boy put a gentle hand on her shoulder, "You always were a compassionate one Hinata." The girl smiled at her one time crush as he turned his head to look at the Hyuuga root, "Three you're dismissed." The woman swiftly saluted and vanished in a puff on smoke.

Yamanaka Inoichi would never admit it, and he later swore everyone else in the council room to secrecy, but when he saw his cousins face emerge from behind that white root mask he...fainted. His cousin died years ago, and yet here he was standing before him with lifeless eyes it was almost as if he was looking at Orochimaru's edo tensei. But, thankfully, that wretched justu had died with that snake. When he woke up he stood up and just stared at his cousin for a moment before finally rushing forward and giving his cousin the bear hug he'd wanted to give him for years.

The root formerly known as Yamanaka Toru stiffened when Inoichi's arms came around him. Memories of what Danzo-sa- Danzo had done to him for showing such affection in the past swamped his mind and he wanted to whimper or scream or even just let off one tiny shiver, but he'd learned is lessons well in root. The only sign he gave of his immense distress was the way he quickly stiffened in his cousins hold.

Inoichi to his credit, felt his cousin stiffen and pulled away quickly with an apologetic look on his face. All while kicking himself internally, he should have known better then to so impulsively hug someone who had been mentally broken. His job was to break people and, occasionally, put broken people back together. He knew that interaction with someone like this was like walking through a field of land mines. Anything could sent them off, and by the way his cousin was sweating he had a feeling he'd really stepped in it.

The Yamanaka clan head wasn't given time to fall into his guilt though as Naruto suddenly appeared at Toru's side, "Well done four. You're dismissed."

Inoichi watched as his cousin almost eagerly saluted to the blond boy and then vanished in the time it took to blink. The n he sat back in his council seat in shame.

Shikaku watched the bittersweet reunions around him with shock. In the world of ninja strange things happened all the time, but it was still weird to see people seemingly come back from the dead, it was even weirder when the undead acted as if they were, well... dead. But he noticed something strange as he watched Naruto bounce for root to root rescuing them from their discomfort. He'd called all three of the root by a different number. But he hadn't used one. When the three root were gone and the commotion settled he cleared his throat, "I noticed that you called each of those root members by a different number, is there a reason you didn't use one?"

Naruto flinched and looked down in sadness, "Yes, one was the team leader, but he died during Orochimaru's assassination." the blond boy looked straight into Shikaku's eyes, "He died saving my life. I wish I could more for him then just return his remains to his family, but... that's the only thing left to do." the Namikaze pulled a scroll out of his kunai pouch and placed it in front of Shikaku, "I'm sorry."

The Nara clan head looked at the scroll in sadness the rolled it open above the seal that held his family member's corpse was a name, _'Nara Shikage (One)'_ _, _the Nara rolled the scroll closed with a frown. Shikage had been one of his best friends growing up, but then, he'd seen what the other root members were like. Maybe this death was a blessing, for Shikage at least. He'd be free to heal in a place where monsters like Danzo didn't exist to pull him down.

Shikaku looked up at the Hokage, and said in a subdued voice, "The evidence has made it very clear that Danzo is a traitor. But to face him directly would be very dangerous. How are we going to take him down?"

Tsunade smiled, "Well the easiest way to kill a snake if to cut off the head. I thought we'd employ a similar method."

.

.

Naruto was really not happy as he walked through the halls of the underground root HQ. The loyal part of the Konoha council had decided, in its infinite wisdom, to send Naruto and Ino in to assassinate Danzo. They made this decision on three factors, Naruto had managed to not only stand toe to toe with Orochimaru for several minutes, but had actually managed to kill him. The blonds exploits in wave had won him the title of the shrieking wind. Which would be a lot cooler name if people stopped asking him if he scream like a girl when he fought.

They also figured that Danzo was old so clearly a chunin and genin could kill off a Kage level ninja with years of experience It made Naruto wonder if they council had a habit of getting high to make the council meetings more interesting. The biggest reason the council sent in a chunin and a genin was because Naruto and Ino were already part of root so there was much less chance of a civil war starting if they were the assassins.

So after two weeks of carefully maneuvering things, as many of the active ninja loyal to Danzo as possible were out of the village on missions making it possible for he and Ino to be here Marching through the root HQ prepared to put their lives on the line for a better safer Konoha, and if they both survived they mutually agreed to go and kill the council. Their generation would be much better leaders anyway. After all they didn't get high so at least they still had all their brain cells.

Ino shivered as she walked next to Naruto, "It's creepy seeing this place so empty. Where is everyone?"

The blond boy glanced around before turning his eyes back to Ino, "As you know the root members who knew about us but wouldn't join us were sent to Ibiki-sensei. Hopefully he'll be able to break their training and turn them into something besides the undead. The ones who are on our side are I also with Ibiki-sensei getting deprogrammed. That just leaves those of root I wasn't able to get to."

Ino frowned, "Which was what? A good half? Even with half of root gone there should still be more action than this."

Naruto looked around again in concern, "I know. But we have a mission to complete and if anyone can tell us where everyone is it's Danzo."

The two ninja made it to Danzo's office without meeting anyone, they were beyond creeped out and by this point but they were still determined so they burst into Danzo's office already in their defensive stances. ...And found the room completely empty. Not only was Danzo or any of his staff not there. But his desk was gone, his files were ashy cinder on the ground and aside from that ashy cinder the room was empty, blank.

"I... think we screwed up." Ino brilliantly observed.

They heard clapping from behind them and turned to see Danzo standing in the only doorway to the room, The two Konoha ninja were trapped. "Well done little project. It only took you falling right into my trap to realize."

The two teenagers slowly stepped back trying to create distance between themselves and their opponent without setting him off, "How did you know?" Naruto asked.

Danzo snorted, "You value yourself far too highly Naruto. Did you really think I'd thrust you with so much after such a short period of time? I had you followed."

The blond boy looked confused, "I never noticed anything. Who did you have following me?"

The traitor smirked and stepped to the side revealing Sai standing emotionlessly behind him. Ino's eyes widened and she moved to step forward but Naruto grabbed her arm, keep ing her from getting too close, "Sai what are you doing? You're supposed to be with the others learning how to feel again."

Danzo laughed, "Oh believe me he wanted to be there. He wanted to be one of the ones that ended those traitors, not just the one that outed them. But I thought he was better served here."

"No." Ino whispered, "No. You're lying! Sai wouldn't turn on me, on us. We're his friends, and... and more."

Naruto was ignoring Ino for the moment instead he was looking straight into Sai's eyes, and he felt his heart break a little for Ino. In those eyes Naruto didn't see any pain or regret. He saw nothing. Nothing but the perfect emotionless root soldier. The blond boy thought back to a conversation he once had with Danzo, _"Out of all the emotional triggers in the world the hardest to train root away from are simple teenage hormones. Remember that Naruto it may save you one day."_

Naruto had screwed up. He'd taken that comment to mean that Sai would be one of the easiest to turn because of his attraction to Ino, but he had miscalculated. Of course Danzo would spend the longest time beating out the most dangerous, and the moment Sai started showing an interest in Ino the crippled scumbag had probably sent him through some retraining sessions.

The Namikaze boy felt ill. Sai had never been their friend, Danzo had made sure that was beaten out of him before their friendship even had a chance. "I'm impressed." the blond boy said calmly, even as he kept his firm grip on Ino, "I never even suspected Sai of being a spy, and neither did Ibiki-sensei."

Danzo smiled, it wasn't a nice smile, "You'd be amazed at how well root do as spies. They don't have emotions to make them feel sympathy for a target, or to make them panic and screw up when things get rough. Indeed, there's no better spy than a root spy."

"And you used this root spy to make sure I was trustworthy, and when you found I wasn't you had him find out what I was up to. What are you going to do with the others? You made it sound like you were going to kill them." Naruto asked

"You're right," the cripple said, "As soon as Sai found out the location of your prison he gave it to me. I sent my loyal root to kill off all of the traitors."

The two blonds shared a look then Ino took off running toward the door that the two enemies had left unblocked while they monologued. Sai beat her to the entrance and she had to skid to a stop to avoid being impaled on his suddenly drawn sword, "Ah, ah, ah, Ino." Danzo said, "I can't have you running of and ruining the surprise now can I?"

Naruto scowled at Danzo. He'd promised those people they would be free. He wouldn't let this monster kill them all! "Ino, I'm so sorry, but you're going to have to get through Sai. I'll make sure Danzo doesn't follow you. And Ino?' The blond boy pulled his eyes away from Danzo's for a brief moment to look into Ino', "Remember what's at stake." He saw Ino nod out of the corner of his eye as he turned his attention back to Danzo.

Sensei and student stood staring at each other as the sounds of battle started near the rooms entrance. "I think I let you're ego get a bit too far out of control Naruto. You may be strong but you're nowhere near Kage level yet." Danzo said.

Naruto shrugged, "I know, but at seventy-three I bet you're not quite there either."

The cripples eyes narrowed, "We shall see." Naruto felt a displacement of air to his left and ducked instinctively as his eyes widened. He flipped over and saw Danzo standing therewith a sword where his head had just been. Naruto kicked up into Danzo's stomach forcing the air out of him even as he was knocked away. The blond boy flipped back onto his feet and pondered how on earth Danzo could have moved that quickly? He'd been standing in front of him when the sword nearly made an intimate acquaintance with his neck.

He glanced over at Danzo and quickly jumped and flipped to connect himself to the ceiling as a massive wave of earth spread throughout the room with Danzo at the epicenter. Naruto gulped. He'd _really _underestimated the old cripple. The blond pulled out three kunai and sent them flying towards Danzo with his wind chakra sharpening them.

Danzo put up a hand and grabbed them out of the air and sent them flying right back at Naruto with twice as much wind chakra on them. The blond cut the chakra to his feet and flipped to land on the floor but was forced to jump wildly out of the way as the three kunai shot through the ceiling in such a way that it came falling down on Naruto's head.

The blonds wild jump threw him into a wall. He slid down it, dazed. When his head stopped ringing he saw Danzo standing above him ready to stab him with his sword. Naruto reached frantically for a weapon and felt something soft and powdery instead. He glanced down and saw that is hand had fallen into the ash left behind by the burning of all of Danzo's file's. Naruto dug his fingers into the feathery ash until they met with the ash that had mixed with the dirt below then he grabbed up a handful and threw it haphazardly towards the cripples face.

Danzo cried out in pain as the mixture of dirt and ash hit his eye. The sword falling toward Naruto hit the concrete beside him instead. The blond let out a short sigh of relief as he pulled out a kunai and went for the jugular of the temporarily blinded man. He was knocked away before even a scratch was made and when Naruto looked up again he froze in shock. The bandage had been removed from Danzo's right eye showing the fully formed sharingan that had been hidden beneath it.

The cripple saw the shock on the blonds face and smirked, "Surprised boy? Well just wait till you see my next trick." The sharingan's tomoe started swirling about within the eye and deep inside himself Naruto could feel the Kyuubi stirring, its chakra beginning to bubble inside him.

The blond jerked back from his opponent with wide eyes. In his study of jinchuuriki he'd discovered that a strong enough sharingan user could control a bijuu. But...Danzo wasn't even an Uchiha! How could he have any power over the fuzz but? The tomoe in the cripples sharingan started spinning faster and Naruto felt the pull on the Kyuubi's chakra get stronger. The Uzumaki backed as far away from Danzo as the room would allow and tried to get rid of his panic.

Everything he'd ever studied on jinchuuriki told him that strong negative emotions made the youki come out faster. The blond took a deep breath and as he exhaled he tried to blow his aggression and fear out with the air. He felt himself becoming calmer until he heard Danzo laugh. The blond's eyes refocused on the cripple to see that he hadn't moved at all, he was standing confidently in the same spot with his sharingan spinning madly as he laughed mockingly, "Calming you're emotions only works if your emotions are why the demon's coming out. It will only slow the inevitable here."

Naruto's eyes narrowed in a glare. Danzo was right, the root needed to be destroyed in order for the Kyuubi to stay where it belonged. With determination, the Uzumaki pulled out a kunai, coated it with wind chakra and sent it flying at Danzo with his fist following close behind. He need to get rid of that sharingan.

The cripple casually dropped his head to the side to avoid the kunai and swung his cane into the oncoming blonds ribs with shattering force. Naruto let out a pain filled grunt as he flew backwards. His back hit the wall behind him with enough force to crack it and he slumped to the ground with a whimper.

"You're not very good at this are you?" Danzo asked, "I posses the power to pul the Kyuubi out of you and control it once it's free and you're response in a simple frontal assault? Obviously I was wrong to choose you as my successor. And it seems the council was wrong to send you as their assassin. Still, I thought you were stronger than this."

The blond slowly pushed himself back to his feet. Something was wrong. Usually his wounds would be much closer to healed by now, but this time they were stubbornly sticking around. Naruto coughed as he felt his right lung begin to fill with blood, but he tried to ignore it as he focused on the man in front of him, even as he willed the seal to stay strong.

Naruto pulled out Shika's Kazaana scroll and forced chakra into it as he threw it over Danzo's head. The scroll exploded with a bang. Danzo's eye's widened. Kunai rained down around the cripple as he tried to dodge them all. Naruto finished the hand signs for Kazaana and disappeared to the sound of shrieking wind. He felt the jutsu pull him along as he appeared at random by Danzo again and again and struck out with his wind lengthened kunai.

Finally the jutsu was over and a breathless Naruto reappeared back where he had started while the shrieking died to nothing. With a distressed sigh the blond prepared himself to take in the no doubt mangled corpse of Danzo as he turned around.

The Uzumaki gasped and rapidly retreated as he saw a completely uninjured Danzo standing outside the circle of kunai on the other end of the room, "W-what? How did- How did you survive the Kazaana? It's faster than the eye can see, and even with the shrieking it would be almost impossible to tell where the next attack is coming from."

Danzo shook his head in disappointment, "You of all people should know better than to implicitly trust something created by the Fourth."

"If that was an abstract dig about me being untrustworthy there were _way _less disturbing ways to get it across." Naruto said vaguely as he studied Danzo's left arm. This was the first time he'd ever seen it as his traitorous sensei had always been careful to keep it hidden. Out of all the things he thought might be under the ever present cloth, he certainly hadn't expected an arm covered in sharingan eyes with all but on open and a face that looked disturbingly like the Shodai's growing out of the shoulder.

The blond shuddered at the grotesque arm, "I guess now I know why you wanted all the Uchiha dead so badly, but ewww."

Danzo fondly glanced down at his left arm, "Ah Naruto. I know it's may not seem like the prettiest of sites, but if you knew the power I contain in this arm alone you would envy me my possession of it. For it is the power of this arm and the sharingan eyes imbedded in it that allowed me to survive unharmed your fathers hirashin." The eyes on the Shodai's face opened and glowed with the signature green of the Senju, "And it is the First's DNA _combined _with these sharingan that will allow me to break your will and possess the power of the Kyuubi."

Naruto screamed in pain and doubled over clutching his stomach as the seal began to burn. He could feel the seal breaking and the nine-tails chakra overwhelming his own. He tried to will it back. He used every ounce of the will power he'd earned through 12 years of neglect and need to care for himself and pushed it all into holding the Kyuubi back, but it wasn't enough. The combined power of the mokuton and sharingan was pulling the nine-tails out regardless of his best efforts to hold it back.

Naruto painfully turned his head up to look at the smirking face of Danzo. That crippled creep was going to win. He couldn't stop this and when the Kyuubi broke free he would die. His thoughts seemed to freeze there and circle, _'he would die – he would die- he would die-" _an idea sparked in the blonds head a desperate crazy idea that would no doubt cause Sakura to hunt him down and beat him into a pulp whether it be in this life or the next, but it was an idea.

One of the blonds hands slowly curled away from it's place clutching the seal and painfully inched its way down to his kunai pouch and pulled one out. Danzo laughed when he saw the kunai in the blonds hand, "Surely by now you've learned that a simple kunai cannot stop me."

Naruto just smiled, "I- I won't let you win. The K-Kyuubi's _my _burden. Mm-my duty is to keep it from harming anyone." a fire burned in Naruto's eyes. A fire the scorched Danzo heart and made him feel fear, "And I will!" The kunai flashed silver in the light right before it cut through the blonds jugular. Naruto felt his life blood leaving him as he silently laughed at the outraged bijuu inside him, 'If I die you die, remember?' The Uzumaki's head began to spin from the loss of blood as a final thought entered his head, 'Please let me not wake up in hell.' Then with a shuddering gasp Naruto felt his eyes go dim.


	4. Chapter 4

A/n- Sorry it's taken me so long to update, especially after leaving chapter three on such a horrible cliffhanger. My excuse was that it was the holidays. Also rejoice! All that's left after this is the epilogue. YAY! Thanks to everyone that reviewed.

Chapter four- Bittersweet Moments

Ino stood in shock as she stared into Sai's dead eyes. Than with a gasp she pulled her sword out out his heart and dropped it as if it were acid. Sai collapsed to his knees as he looked up at Ino.

The blond girl brought a hand up to cover her sob, she didn't mean to kill him. She loved him. He was supposed to dodge like he had a hundred times before when she'd used that move in their spars. She stared into his eyes as the light slowly drained from them and felt a tear slip down her face, "Why don't cry? You're about to die I killed you. But you look like you don't even care. Why- Why didn't you dodge? You're stronger than me, you could've dodged. I was only going to knock you out. Tie you up and let Ibiki fix you when this was over."

Sai looked up at her and smiled. Ino saw the soft emotion that sparked in his eyes for a brief moment before his face froze in death. Stuck with a peaceful, happy look on his face. More tears slipped from Ino's eyes as she saw him die, "No. No you- you're not dead. You_ can't _die. You wouldn't be happy dead. You shouldn't smile when the person who loves you kills you. That's not the way love works."

Ino didn't know how long she sat there crying before she heard Naruto scream in pain and Danzo laugh. Her head snapped around to the room where her fight had started and she took a step forward desperate not to lose a friend so soon after losing her boyfriend. But her common sense froze her steps. She was much weaker than Naruto, if he was struggling than she would just get in the way. Besides, she had her own mission to fulfill, and she would be able to best help Naruto by telling a jonin what was happening. So with a last sorrowful look at her dead love, she took off towards Ibiki and the endangered ex-root. "Hold on Ruto. Help will come soon."

.

.

Naruto felt at peace as he floated in the blackness. This was a wonderful feeling, his pain was gone, and, even though he would have rather lived longer and done more with his life, he'd say putting a stop to a century old conspiracy, a seventy-something year-old puppet master and killing a bijuu by the time he was fourteen was pretty good. With a content sigh he let his consciousness begin to recede again.

A bright light hit the blonds eyes and he let out a groan of protest. In spite of the fact that he was floating he tried to roll over but the light didn't dim, in fact it almost seemed to grow brighter. He threw an arm he didn't know he still had over his eyes to block out the light that was keeping him from sleeping, and let a pleased smile cross his face as the light dimmed enough for him to relax.

Then the poking started. Naruto tried to ignore it at first but it only took a few pokes to make him growl in annoyance. The poking stopped for a moment before it continued at a faster pace. The blond tried to swat away the pokey thing but missed. The poking once again paused. And Naruto allowed himself to relax. At least, until he heard a feminine laugh, "Wow, Mina-kun. He's even worse about getting up than you are."

"I was _never _this bad." a deep male voice defended.

The same female voice, this time with a bit of disbelief in it, answered, "Uh-huh, and who would have a better idea of how hard it is to wake you up than the wife that wakes you up _everyday_?"

"My students." was the males smug reply. Naruto heard a light smacking sound, "Ow!"

"Oh you big baby. Our newborn hit harder than that." the woman said.

Finally Naruto decided he should open his eyes and see who the heck was talking, and as his eyelids rose he looked into... his face. No her face, she looked a lot like what a green eyed, red-headed version of his orioke no jutsu would look like. He looked past the woman into a pair of blue eyes the color of his own a his thoughts froze in shock. Blond hair, blue eyes a face that bore a striking resemblance to the Hokage monument.

The blond boy shot up in shock and accidentally hit foreheads with the woman, "Ow! Naruto!"

He kept staring. His father. That blond haired blue eyed man that, aside from the coloring, looked nothing like him was his father, the freaking Fourth Hokage. The young Uzumaki turned stunned eyes to the red-headed woman who, aside from coloring and... well being a girl, looked almost exactly like him. He stared in wonder, his mother. This had to be his mother. The woman he had often imagined was sitting in front of him rubbing her forehead in annoyance.

The boy felt tears come to his eyes, "Mom. Dad." The parents looked at their son and nodded with loving smiles on their faces, "Crap. That means I'm dead doesn't it?"

The smile on his mothers face fell back into a look of annoyance, "No you're not dead yet, though it's certainly not for lack of you trying. You have about thirty seconds before you die, and that's why we're here. To save you."

"Ummm, I kinda just slit my own throat, how do you save someone from that?" Naruto asked.

It was his father who answered, "With the regenerative abilities of the Kyuubi of course."

The boy looked less then impressed, "The demon who is apparently at the moment still trying to kill me?"

His mother smiled, "Pretty much, but don't worry we have it all worked out. So taking into account the time dilation of a dream state we have about five minutes of dream time before we need to save you. So..." Kushina sprang forward and wrapped her son in a hug. She was soon joined by Minato who wrapped his arms around both of them, "How are you sweetie? Aside form currently dieing are you ok? Have you had a good life?"

Naruto stayed frozen in shock for a moment before he slowly let his arms rise to wrap around his mother, and he allowed himself to relish the feel of a parents embrace, "Yeah, I'm fine. I missed you, I always wondered what it would be like to be hugged like this. Life's been hard in Konoha, but it's good. I've made good friends and... I've made a place for myself."

Minato pulled away from the hug first, "Your hard life is my fault Naruto. I'm sorry. I've seen the way the villagers have treated you, we both have. I knew it would be bad from marrying your mother, but not like it was. It was never that bad for Kushina."

The boy looked confused, "What do you mean? Why would things be bad for mom?"

Kushina pulled back enough to look her son in the face, "I was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki before you son. I wasn't strong enough to hold it back without help when you were born. That's why it had to be sealed into you."

Naruto was wide eyed, "A jinchuuriki? You?"

His mother nodded, "Yes, and I'm so sorry for the life you had to lead."

Naruto shook his head, half in shock and half in negation, "It-it's alright. I more than anyone knows what it's like to hold the Kyuubi back. Heck, I killed myself to stop it, how could I hate you for that." the boy looked over to his father, "And dad if you have access to all my memories you should know that I already forgave you. You... you didn't really have a choice."

The man smiled and ruffled his sons hair, "I know, but I still had to ask for your forgiveness."

The boy smiled, but the smile fell into frown of confusion when he felt the world flicker for a moment. Kushina pulled him closer, "We're running out of time. Naruto, we're going to wake you up soon and as soon as you wake up I need you to turn into the shodai."

The boy shook his head, "I can't, every time I try to use his DNA I turn into the Thing instead."

"You won't this time son," Minato said, "I'll be stabilizing your jutsu so that only the Shodai's DNA gets mimicked."

Kushina turned to him, "And I'll be doing what I can to control the Kyuubi's chakra until the Shodai's DNA kicks in. We'll need his DNA and me to counteract Danzo's stolen bloodlines and control the Kyuubi's chakra."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "I understand. But, will I see you again after this?"

The red-head sorrowfully shook her head, "No sweetie. We're just chakra remnants of your parents and this will use up all the chakra that's left. But when you die, and you had better not die for a _long _time, we'll be waiting for you. But no matter what we love you."

Minato nodded with a smile, "She's right Naruto. We do love you. Now we're almost out of time and there are a few things you need to know before we let you wake up. First I'm leaving you with the knowledge of how to correct the seal if it starts to break like this again, but you need to know that you won't be able to fix it yourself. It will have to be a ninja you trust. Also I need to tell you about a threat to you and all of Konoha, his name is Madara..."

.

.

Naruto woke up screaming, or at least trying to. His hand flew to his still shorn throat and he panicked as he felt his death draw closer. Almost without thought the hand that wasn't holding his bloodied throat reached for the DNA pills of The Thing. He offered up a silent prayer of hope that his parents knew what they were doing, and then put the pill into his mouth and let it dissolve as he channeled all the chakra he had left to spare.

The change was immediate, but not at all what he was expecting. He could _feel _his DNA shifting, but it stopped in the middle, he was still himself but he could feel the power of the Mokuton bloodline inside of him. All nine tails of the Kyuubi's chakra pulled free of the seal, but instead of forming a new body of chakra it fell around him as a nine-tailed cloak. He could feel the Shodai's bloodline, and his mother holding the Kyuubi in check, giving him perfect control of the monster.

In that moment he regretted that there was only enough of his parents chakra left for this one use. Never before had control of the Kyuubi been easier, nor the bloodline the imprisoned monster gave Naruto. Physically he was alone, but he had never felt more surrounded by allies. His parents would hold control of the Kyuubi and his transformation as long as they could, but that meant Danzo had to die before their help was lost.

Naruto set his jaw determinately as he made the familiar sign for shadow clones. He was stunned when nearly a thousand appeared. He had underestimated just how much power the Kyuubi had, and he knew he would need to be careful of he could grow very fond of having this much chakra. Tainted and generally uncontrollable though it was.

The blond focused on the kazaana kunai around Danzo and smirked. The old cripple may be able dodge _one _Naruto doing that jutsu, but how would he fair against a thousand. He and all his copies simultaneously started the kazaana. And the room exploded into chaos. All the Narutos were attacking Danzo at once and accidentally running into each other as they tried to use the same kunai causing hundreds of the clones to explode into white smoke. White smoke that hazed vision and added confusion to chaos.

After hardly any time at all had passed Naruto stood on the other side of the room from Danzo. Only a hundred of his clones were left, and as he looked at the old man his eyes once again widened. Danzo was untouched. In fact he looked exactly the same save that now two of the sharingan eyes on his arm were closed instead of just the one that was closed before. A thought pinged in his head, a vague suspicion about how Danzo might be surviving such deadly attacks.

With this suspicion in mind Naruto once again sent his clones in using the kazaana. He needed to see if he was right.

The blond watched as his clones circled Danzo in a yellow cyclone, wind covered kunai occasionally flashing silver from within it. He winced the few times his clones collided and he got the memory of what it was like to collide at high speed with himself.

Then the attack was over. He and his 75 clones looked at the again unharmed Danzo. Only this time there were three sharingan eyes closed. Naruto felt a feeling of joy mixed with irritation fill him as he realized he was right. The blond didn't know how, but those eyes were somehow being used to keep Danzo from harm. And that meant his job just got a lot harder. At a glance it looked like the old man had twenty sharingan eyes that were still open and Naruto had no idea if the eyes he'd already used would reopen at some point.

If they wouldn't, all the blond had to do was outlast him. Which, even with the enormous chakra demands of kazaana, wouldn't be too hard as long as he was being strengthened by the Kyuubi's chakra. But if the eyes would open again at some point, maybe after they'd rested or something, then he had a time constraint and waiting him out probably wouldn't work.

Naruto's mind quickly flipped through all the strategies he could use with his power and arsenal knowing what he did about Danzo. Then he smiled as he settled on a tried and true one. If brute force works, use it.

The blond created another thousand clones and sent them in using the kazaana, and watched as pure chaos once again reigned. When those clones were almost gone and there were five eyes closed Naruto sent in a fresh wave. For what seemed like eternity this was how it continued between Naruto and Danzo. The blond sending in wave after wave of clones as he watched the eyes blink shut.

Five.

Seven.

Thirteen.

Then, before either side could react a Naruto clone appeared in front of Danzo in a poof and stabbed him through the heart before he had the chance to activate whatever jutsu was keeping him safe.

The old mans eyes widened in shock as he collapsed. How... how had that clone gotten so close? He made sure that the Izanagi kept all the kazaanaing clones at bay. As his muscles stopped working from loss of blood he thought back over the chaotic fight and realized that during the wave upon wave of clone attacks there had been a small mouse inching closer. He had thought it odd that a mouse wasn't running from the battle, but with the focus needed to control his jutsu and keep track of all the clones he hadn't really had time to think about it. The old man gave a last bitter smile. Even with all his amassed power, he'd been defeated by a fourteen year old boy, and a jutsu as insignificant as a transformation.

Danzo let himself relax as death came closer. He was old and tired. Perhaps it was time to leave Konoha's safety to a younger generation. He only hoped they would have the will to do what was necessary to keep it safe. A will his young apprentice hadn't... seemed..to.

Naruto watched the life fade from Danzo's eyes before he collapsed gasping. Crazy amounts of chakra or not _that _battle had been exhausting. He let his eyes fall to a close in relief as he reached inside his mind, 'Mom? Dad? Are you still there?'

'Yes Naruto.' the voice of his father answered inside of his head, 'We can stick around long enough to replace Kyuubi in the seal and reverse the partial transformation into the Shodai. Then we'll be out of chakra.'

'Oh' the blond thought, 'Thank you... for helping me. I would have been joining you in heaven had you not.' Naruto could feel his consciousness fading into sleep, 'I'm glad got to meet you.'

Right before his consciousness faded completely he heard the quiet voice of his mother, 'We love you Naruto.' Then the blond was gone. Enveloped in a world of dreams.


	5. Epilogue

Epilogue- Divergent paths

Naruto awoke to the sound of a heart monitor. He opened tired eyes and took in the sight of the sterile walls of the hospital. Then he groaned. Why did he have to end up in this rotten place.

"If you weren't already injured not to mention a village hero I'd hit you." the blond glanced over to see Sakura standing at the edge of his bed with her arms folded.

The Namikaze smiled, "Hey Sakura. How long was I out?"

The pink-haired girl shrugged, "Just a day. But you got lucky. From the look of the room you were fighting in your fight with Danzo was anything but easy. Especially since we found copious amounts of your blood all over the room."

"Yeah." the blond said, "It certainly wasn't easy. I even almost died once. Like really almost died, not the, I get hit by a supposedly fatal injury and then Kyuubi heals me, but the oh crap this is it kind."

Sakura looked a bit pale as she sat on the edge of his bed, "What happened?"

Naruto told her about the fight and ended with, "That was hands down the hardest thing I've ever done. But I got to meet my parents, and that pretty much makes up for the almost dieing part. So what happened with the root we were hiding? Danzo said he was sending everyone who was still loyal to him to kill them all."

The Haruno nodded, "He did. Fortunately Ino was able to warn us in time. It was a pretty bad battle, but casualties were minimal, and much lower than they would have been had we had no warning."

The blond nodded in relief before he let his thoughts turn to Ino. The last time he'd seen her she had been going into a fight with her boyfriend. He was worried about how that would affect her, "How's Ino?"

Sakura frowned, "Not so good. Apparently the only way to get to us to warn us was to go through Sai, and she had to kill him before she could get around him."

Naruto winced. Poor Ino. "Where is she now?"

The pink-haired girl shrugged, "No has seen all that much of her since yesterday."

The blond nodded absentmindedly, "Hey Sakura? I'm pretty hungry could you go get me something?"

The Haruno looked at him in suspicion but nodded, "Of course. I'll go see if I can't get some ramen in the hospital cafeteria."

Naruto's eyes brightened, "Thanks Sakura!"

The pink-haired girl smiled and shook her head, "What else would I do for my crazy teammate?" then she stood up and walked out of the room.

The blond waited until the door shut before he hurried out the window not even bothering to change out of his hospital clothes, if Sakura was onto him she'd make sure he was still there before going to hunt down ramen which meant he had to be long gone. As he took off over the roofs he used his transformation to give the appearance of him wearing his normal clothes. But he winced as the jutsu came into effect. His chakra was still pretty low. Even with the Kyuubi apparently having his injuries healed _and _his chakra back up to normal levels the day after a major battle with no food for fuel was too much to ask.

Still even if he was hungry enough to eat a horse he was mostly healthy. Definitely healthy enough to look for Ino.

Back in his hospital room the door opened and Sakura peeked inside, then shook her head in exasperation when she found Naruto gone. That idiot. Still it wasn't hard for her to figure out what he was up to. She just hoped he could help Ino.

.

.

Naruto had looked for Ino for hours with little lucky, but finally he had found her. And now he stood quietly in the cemetery behind Ino as she wept. Completely at a loss of what to do. There wasn't even a gravestone where she knelt yet, for Sai wouldn't be buried until tomorrow. Yet here his friend knelt in sorrow.

The boy took a hesitant step forward, "Ino?" He knelt down nest to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Dozens of words filled his mouth and got caught there. There were so many things he wanted to say, but they all seemed trite and uncaring. The Yamanaka turned her watery eyes to her friend and Naruto thought he knew what to do. With gentle hands the boy pulled Ino into his arms, and as he hugged her he whispered, "I'm sorry."

Ino cried. All the guilt and pain at the loss of her boyfriend; all the tears she'd already cried came out tenfold as she let herself be held by Naruto.

For hours Naruto sat there, not speaking or moving. But simply holding his friend, and grieving with her.

.

.

Everyday for the next month Naruto would kidnap Ino from her house and try to cheer her up. Sometimes he offered to be her personal slave as he dragged her out shopping, other times he did something as simple as taking her on a picnic. But not matter what it was, everyday the blond boy showed up on her doorstep and tried to drag her from her gloom. And today, he succeeded. As she opened the door and saw him there she gave a weak little smile. Naruto beamed, and dragged her off to Ichiraku, for a "surprise". Ino rolled her eyes even as she let herself be dragged along. The "surprise" was a new fattening type of ramen no doubt. After all her friend had been trying to get her to eat more this last month.

Ino froze in shock as she entered Ichiraku's, "I-Iruka-sensei!"

The chunin smiled at his startled former student, "Hello Ino-chan."

The stunned blond girl turned to look at her friend, who just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Surprise!" with a grin.

Ino shook her head, "I don't understand, I thought you and Iruka-sensei weren't on speaking terms."

Naruto nodded, "We weren't, at least not until I finished my mission to oust Danzo. But we've patched everything up now, and I thought you could use a more experienced sympathetic ear than I can be. Iruka-sensei helped me a lot after I got tortured, and I thought that maybe he could help you to."

Ino looked between the blond boy and the academy instructor and her face softened into a small smile, "That's really sweet, thank you." she turned to look at the chunin, "If it's alright with you Iruka-sensei I really would like to talk to you about this. I'd talk to daddy, but he's so protective I didn't think he could just listen."

The academy instructor nodded in understanding and gestured to the seat next to him, "Why don't you come sit down and order a bowl of ramen. I always find things easier to share over a good bowl of ramen."

Ino eyed the calorie packed meal in front of Iruka-sensei distrustfully before she nodded and went to take a seat. She needed to gain some weight anyway.

Naruto looked at the two with a satisfied smile. Now Ino would finally be able to talk to someone who had the experience to help her. Knowing that Ino was in good hands he turned to exit the ramen stand, but he was stopped by Ichiraku's voice, "Naruto? Aren't you going to order anything?"

The boy turned to look at the ramen stand owner and shook his head, "Nah, I just came to drop off Ino, besides I'm taking Jiji out to lunch. I... I've got some things to workout with him." Then he turned and walked out of the shop, missing the surprised and proud looks on the faces of those inside.

Ichiraku smiled, "He grows more everyday." He turned to Ino, "Now what kind of ramen would you like young lady?"

.

.

Naruto knocked on the door to the Hokage's office and entered when he was invited to do so. He walked in and saw the Third and Fifth hokages sitting together pouring over something, "Excuse my interruption Hokage-samas, but I was wondering if you had time to go get lunch with me Sandaime-sama.

Naruto wasn't sure whose look of shock was more amusing, but Tsunade answered first, "He is absolutely free. Take as much time as you need."

The Third looked to the Fifth in surprise, "I disagree this treaty in very important, and time sensitive, besides, we've already had lunch ordered in, it should be here in a few minutes."

Naruto looked a bit crestfallen, "Oh, well alright, it can wait. Good luck on your treaty." Then he turned and walked out of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Tsunade turned to Sarutobi and glared, "That wasn't necessary sensei. I could have handled things here long enough for you to go out and have lunch with your honorary grandson."

"Getting yelled at once again by Naruto would take me out of the diplomatic frame of mind I need to be in for this treaty." Was the Sandaime's rejoinder.

Tsunade shook her head, "Can you even remember the last time Naruto really yelled at you? You know about his mission with Danzo. If he had tried to reconcile with you his mission would have failed, but I'd bet my hokage hat that he wanted to take you out to lunch to rebuild you're bond."

The Third shook his head, "First of all, you can keep the hat. It took me fifteen years to get rid of it and I have no desire to have it back. Second, don't take that bet. I don't want there to be some horrible disaster if you're right. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see why Naruto wanted to take me to lunch. I should be back in an hour."

"I won't count on that." the Fifth said with a smile and, as soon as the door shut, she muttered it's about time.

Three boring hours for Tsunade, and emotionally intense hours for Sarutobi, later the Third walked back into the Hokage office with a smile on his face.

The blond Hokage looked up with a smirk, "I take it your lunch went well."

Hiruzen smiled, "Indeed it did. Naruto and I are by no means as easy in each others company as we once were, but I believe that that awkwardness will easily pass with time."

Tsunade smiled, "Good."

.

.

It had been three months since the fall of Danzo. The stars were twinkling over head and team psych was on top of the hokage monument watching them.

"Ahhh, it's nice to just be able to relax for once." Sakura said, "To not have to worry about our jobs or what we have to do tomorrow."

Shikamaru groaned and sat up, "Now you've ruined it. Now I'm back to thinking about how tomorrow I'll be leaving to go join the twelve ninja guardians for a year."

"It's better than me." Naruto grunted, "At least you'll be back in a year, and you'll be living in a palace. I'm gonna be stuck traveling with Ero-sennin for two years on the road as he tries to cram everything he knows about spying into my head."

Sakura sighed, "And I'll be stuck here in Konoha without my two best friends. How is that fair?"

The blond shrugged, "You could come with me, but I don't think you'd want to leave your apprenticeship with Tsunade-sama."

"And Jiraiya-sensei's a pervert." Shikamaru added.

Sakura nodded, "No no, I'm good here. I'll just really miss you guys. This is the last night we'll have to spend together for two years. And Shika and I won't be able hang out for a year, unless something takes me to the capital city or the Damiyo visits Konoha."

"Which has been known to happen." Shikamaru said.

The blond hopped to his feet, "But still, if this is our last night together we should go out with a bang! I say we prank... anyone we want to!"

"Uh-huh." Sakura said disbelievingly, "Than you and Shika can run off for a long time and I'll be stuck with the blame."

Shikamaru shook his head, "No, we'll only do things that Naruto and I could do on our own and then tomorrow you can act shocked and upset that we did all this without you. You could even cry and moan about how you can't believe your best friends had a midnight party the night before they left without you. Besides, You only have to worry about taking the blame if we get caught."

The Haruno thought on it for a moment then grinned, "I'm in."

.

.

The next day was a day of insanity for Konoha. Tsunade's sake was replaced with vinegar. One unpleasant sip and she was out for blood. The Sarutobi clan woke up to an estate overrun with the primates from the zoo. The Nara's were all disturbingly energetic ( it was found later that someone had switched out their de-caf coffee for the coffee with the highest caffeine possible).

The Hyuuga were all sporting curly hair. As their normal shampoo had been replaced with an idiot proof home perm. The Inuzuka's woke up to find that all their dogs chew toy's were gone, and spent the majority of the morning hunting them down.

Ibiki walked into work bright and early to find that all of his torture implement's were gone. In their place were kids toys. He was spitting mad at first because a prisoner had already been brought into the room, but he quickly discovered that the toys made a better intimidation tactic than the torture implements ever had. So when his tolls were found later. He left them off the wells in favor of the toys. This earned his some ribbing from his comrades. But no one could deny the results as his success rate jumped by fifty percent.

The team had discussed pranking the Akamichi's but they got there at breakfast time and after the clan generously shared their breakfast with them, it was decided that the Akamichi's would be left in peace.

Pranking the Yamanaka's was also discussed, but in the end they decided against it out of concern for Ino.

Then there was Gai. He was strangely calm, even tired that day, and was in fact tired for the next several weeks until it was discovered that someone had spiked the orange juice that he religiously drank every morning with a sedative.

By ten that morning Konoha was in chaos, but team psych still stood at the gate saying their goodbye's. Sakura hugged one boy then the other, "I'm gonna miss you guys."

"Yeah, me too Saku." Naruto said.

Jiraiya plopped one his hands down on each of his students heads, "I know it's hard saying good-bye, but we need to get a move on soon if we want to make it to capital city by nightfall."

All three chunin nodded and said their final good-byes and promised to write each other. Then Sakura watched as her two best friends walked out of sight. She knew they would all grow and be different people by the time they saw each other next. She just hoped that they would still be friends.

_**Finis**_

Well, that's the end. I have to admit this end is a bit bittersweet for me. I wish I could have spent more time on this story, and given it the attention it deserved, but I don't have it. The main reason this end is bittersweet for me is because in two day's I'll be leaving my family and friends for a year and a half as I go on a mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I'll only be able to talk to them through letters( that's also why I can't give this story more attention, I won't have access to a computer).

I would like to end by thanking everyone who read my story, alerted it, or Favorited it. I'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who reviewed or added my story to a community. And I'd like to give the biggest thank you of all to Nex-thanarak. This story would have gotten nowhere without him.


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